Light and Shade Books
Stories that don't look away from the hard bits — or the funny ones.
Fiction for readers who've been told a book isn't for them.
Written by a former special school teacher with over twenty years in the classroom, Light and Shade Books makes room for the readers other books forget — reluctant readers, struggling readers, and the young people who've simply never met a story that felt like theirs.
Why this imprint exists
Twenty years of watching the right book change a child's whole week.
Before Light and Shade Books, Clare spent two decades teaching children and teenagers with reading difficulties and special educational needs. This imprint grew out of a simple, stubborn belief: every reader deserves a story that meets them where they are — not a simplified version of someone else's.
For parents
Straightforward, unpatronising books for children who find reading hard going — chosen and written with real classroom experience behind them.
For teachers & SENCOs
Fiction that works alongside your SEN provision, not against it — with notes on readability and audience where they're useful.
For everyone else
Adult fiction and coming-of-age stories that don't need a special reason to be picked up — just a reader who wants a good one.
Featured & forthcoming
From the shelf
The Seagulls Have Landed
Clare Cheetham's debut novel. Available now in paperback and ebook.
See where to buy →
Taste Buddies
A coming-of-age story following teacher Annie Mews and her students on a school exchange across Europe. Book one of a planned four-part series.
Read more →From the blog
Latest notes
10 Questions to Ask Before Buying a Book for a Struggling Reader
The questions I wish more parents had in their back pocket at the bookshop.
Read the post →Why I Left the Classroom (But Never Left Teaching)
On twenty years in special school education, and why this imprint had to happen.
Read the post →From Screenplay to Novel: Adapting Good Cooks, Bad Cooks
How a school-exchange screenplay became Taste Buddies — and what changed along the way.
Read the post →