Submissions

Do you love a book and want to recommend it to other kids to read? We are open to submissions of book reviews by children (aged 12 and under) for publication here at Alphabet Soup’s website.

We are no longer accepting submissions of creative writing or artworks.

If you’d like to send your book review for consideration, please read the following guidelines. 

Parents/guardians can email a child’s book reviews to our editor, Rebecca Newman, at editor[at]alphabetsoup.net.au (change the [at] for an @ sign). Please include the following information in your email:

  1. The parent’s full name and the statement ‘I give permission for my child _____’s work to be published online at Alphabet Soup’s website’.
  2. The first name of the child reviewer, and their age, the state they live in (e.g. NSW/WA/VIC etc) and the country if not Australia.
  3. The book review, either attached as a Word document or pasted in the body of the email.
  4. Please don’t include any fancy formatting or text colours in your review.

If you prefer to post us your review in the mail, you can post it to:

Alphabet Soup, PO Box 3099, Broadway Nedlands WA 6009, AUSTRALIA.

Our editor will reply to your book review submission within 7 days.

NB: Emailing us a book review does not guarantee that it will be accepted for publication on Alphabet Soup’s website.

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If you’d like some examples of book reviews written by children, try these!

Review of Shadowghast (review by Fergus, age 12)

Review of What Snail Knows (review by Anwen, age 8)

Review of The Last Light Horse (review by Gabriel, age 11)

Review of Zoe, Max and the Bicycle Bus (review by Rory, age 9)

Review of Tales of Wisdom and Wonder (review by Matilda, age 9)

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Information for teachers

If your class has written reviews of the same book, please send us a small selection of the best. (We are unable to publish 30 reviews of the same book.)

When you email us your students’ work, please:

  • obtain permission from students’ parents before sending us their work.
  • state that you are the teacher and you have parent permission for those students to have work published, if selected.
  • include each student’s first name, age and state (or country if outside Australia).
  • email submissions to editor[at]alphabetsoup.net.au or post to PO Box 3099, Broadway Nedlands WA 6009, AUSTRALIA.

We DO accept submissions of collaborative work – a single book review written by two or more children … or the whole class.

Thank you for encouraging your students to read!
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NB: If your book review is accepted for publication on the blog, we will publish your first name, age, and state (and country, if outside Australia), unless you advise us otherwise.

As Alphabet Soup is a website for children in primary school we don’t usually publish reviews of Young Adult (YA/older teen) books. Reviews of picture books, comics, magazines, graphic novels, junior fiction, chapter books, plays and poetry for children, and middle grade (books suited to readers aged 10+) are all welcomed!