The Emma Press will publish Rob Walton’s innovative flash fiction collection for children in March 2025
The Emma Press will publish acclaimed poet Rob Walton’s Please Don’t Read the Footnotes Please, a middle-grade collection of humorous flash fiction tales, in March 2025. The Emma Press have acquired worldwide English Language rights direct from the author.
Please Don’t Read the Footnotes Please is a collection of very short stories aimed at older primary school children (9-12). It is a rebellious book that invites children to read subversively and jump between the funny, irreverent stories and the footnotes.
With frequent interjections from an over-eager author, the focus is on making writing feel fun and accessible: Please Don’t Read the Footnotes Please encourages children to celebrate the absurdity and humour within the everyday, and to create their own stories!
Traditionally, once a book is published, the author’s job is over. The book belongs to the reader, so YOU decide what it’s really about. But in this case, author Rob Walton* keeps popping up with comments, suggestions and general chatter, to keep you company and (possibly) improve your reading experience. You’ll find stories about horses, chocolate, supply teachers and Lincolnshire. There are stories about unusual days in class and even more unusual days in the library. There are also stories about going round friends’ houses, and the weird things parents do. As you can see, the stories are wide-ranging…
This is a book that breaks all the rules, inviting you to zig-zag across the page between the funny stories and the** footnotes.
*teacher, poet, absolutely legitimate master of the short story
**even funnier
What they said
Author Rob Walton said: “I think it may have all started with a yellow squirrel. It came round for a flat white and asked me to write about it. Next, I had an idea for a story about a horse but found that other horses were asking me to write about them. Some of the stories, especially the ones dictated by potatoes, made me laugh. I’d like to think the book that emerged from the mess of my mind is suitable for (a) children who know what a school is, (b) yellow squirrels and (c) people who very occasionally like to think in the middle of their laughter.”
Emma Dai’an Wright, Director of The Emma Press, said: “Please Don’t Read the Footnotes Please is exactly the kind of book I’d have been obsessed with if I’d found it in the library at primary school. Rob’s stories are thrillingly, delightfully subversive and make the reader feel so included in the silly jokes and constant asides and call-backs. It’s a magical moment when, as a child, you realise that a) books can make you laugh out loud, and b) you could write books too, and I hope Please Don’t Read the Footnotes Please becomes a treasured part of many children’s childhoods.”
Please Don’t Read the Footnotes Please will be published by The Emma Press on 20 March 2025.
Illustrated throughout by Reena Makwana.
ISBN 9781915628367/Paperback/£9.99
About the author:
Rob Walton is a writer, performer and teacher from Scunthorpe, now based in Whitley Bay, where he writes short fiction and poetry for children and adults. His debut poetry collection, This Poem Here, was published by Arachne Press in 2021. His poetry for children has been published online by Tyger Tyger and The Dirigible Balloon, and features in various print magazines and anthologies published by, among others, The Toy Press, The Emma Press, Parakeet, Bloomsbury and Macmillan.
About the illustrator:
Reena Makwana is a London-based illustrator who creates illustrations using drawings, embroidery and print. Her work is influenced by the city, characters, creatures, social past and present. She has produced work for clients including Vittles, Pit Magazine, Endeavour Agency, Lecker, Big Family Press, At The Table and At The Table.
For further information, to speak to Rob or to request a review copy, please contact:
Georgia Wall, Publishing Manager, The Emma Press: hello@theemmapress.com
About The Emma Press:
The Emma Press is an award-winning independent publishing house based in the Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham. It was founded in 2012 by Emma Dai’an Wright and is dedicated to producing beautiful, thought-provoking books for adults and children, and to making publishing and literature more accessible and welcoming. The Emma Press publishes themed anthologies, illustrated chapbooks and children’s poetry and fiction, with a growing list of translations which includes titles from Latvia, Estonia, Indonesia, Spain and the Netherlands. In 2024, the Emma Press were shortlisted for the Bookseller’s Small Press of the Year (Midlands) and the Independent Publisher Guild Awards.
