rymkechacha.bsky.social
@rymkechacha.bsky.social
It’s on its way! You can request The Apple and the Pearl on netgalley now from @titanbooks.bsky.social 👀
November 18, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Teaching is actually shockingly slow to react and adapt to new research (or even old research, tbh) We largely get away with it because children are wired to learn and often do so despite teaching, not because of it.
November 12, 2025 at 10:41 AM
This article implies that these methods of teaching reading explain the general sense of declining literacy, and I can see where they’re coming from. If you’re working this hard for every single word on a page because the cognitive foundations simply aren’t there, how can reading be pleasurable?
November 12, 2025 at 10:41 AM
I have never heard of whatever’s described in this article! These strategies seem useful for an intermediate reader, perhaps, someone starting to read more complex texts where they need to use context clues to make meaning, but of a whole text, not individual words.
November 12, 2025 at 10:41 AM
But I saw over my years teaching and now as my daughters learn to read, that phonics is a kind of magic. You give them good quality, mainly decodable texts and you teach comprehension skills at the same time and you support those going slower or coming against barriers.
November 12, 2025 at 10:41 AM
And the older teachers felt that there was no joy of reading in the programmes, and were concerned that comprehension skills were not taught. So they made sure to separate out phonics from literacy and English to still get in all that rich text learning.
November 12, 2025 at 10:41 AM
This is fascinating.
When I first did training in phonics as a year 1 teaching assistant, I was skeptical. It seemed to me wrong to pretend to 5 yr olds that English is a phonetic language when you’re going to have to admit the truth a few years later
November 12, 2025 at 10:41 AM
I agree!
October 15, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Reposted
THE APPLE AND THE PEARL by Rym Kechacha is currently 25% off in the Waterstones 2026 Pre-Order Promotion! #WPreorder

Use the code OCTOBER25 on their website or app, now until 23.59 October 17.

https://bit.ly/WSpreorder
October 14, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted
I received some fab ARCs recently!

The Apple and the Pearl by @rymkechacha.bsky.social - “a ballet troupe of lost souls perform an ancient dance for the faerie realms” Thank you @titanbooks.bsky.social

The White Octopus Hotel by Alexandra Bell - “a magical hotel in the Swiss Alps”
Thanks Del Rey
October 14, 2025 at 9:32 AM
The contrast between the words and pictures in that one is so delightful!
October 6, 2025 at 9:15 AM
If we all read Shirley Hughes, we would all be able to infer tone and there would be no media literacy crisis
October 5, 2025 at 1:49 PM
The Raven Scholar is brilliant, you’ve got a few very happy hours ahead of you there!
October 5, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Fed up with the (often wrong) AI summaries google foists upon you these days, I’ve made my default search engine ecosia. It’s undoubtedly problematic in some way and maybe I won’t get what I’m after as quickly but wading through the hallucinations is such a waste
September 15, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted
A beautifully written Slavic fantasy featuring the circus and a tiger from @titanbooks.bsky.social. The Lady, the Tiger and the Girl Who Loved Death by Helen Marshall #BFSReview britishfantasysociety.org/review/the-l...
August 7, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted
This is an interesting thread and also interesting as it mirrors a lot of discussions in the literary fiction, which is also dying out as a category in many ways.

(Obviously, anyone who has read my novel Metallic Realms knows both of these are conversations on my mind...)
August 30, 2025 at 2:05 PM
I’m really enjoying noir as a mode, or maybe what writers can do with its tropes and vibes as they explore something else. I’m thinking Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford, Sara Gran’s detective series and Harmattan Season by Tochi Onyebuchi which i just finished
August 30, 2025 at 7:18 PM
I loved this. A similar feeling of savouring, even if it was heartbreaking.
August 2, 2025 at 4:24 PM
It sucks as a feeling but there’s no summer without winter. Something that’s really helped me is taking up something creative but unconnected to writing, something i can do badly and happily. Cross training for creativity! (I’m learning an instrument)
July 30, 2025 at 11:02 AM
The first of many (sorry) substack posts about my new novel
rymkechacha.substack.com/p/the-apple-...
The Apple and the Pearl
coming from Titan Books February 2026
rymkechacha.substack.com
July 30, 2025 at 7:59 AM
The news is out! The Apple and the Pearl coming February 2026
July 29, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted
Today we're thrilled to be able to share the cover reveal for Rym Kechacha's upcoming faerie tale fantasy THE APPLE AND THE PEARL, due for publication 3rd February 2026 from Titan Books.

Cover design by Julia Lloyd 

Read more: tinyurl.com/698xt2x4

@titanbooks.bsky.social
July 29, 2025 at 2:01 PM