Guest Post by Jess Butterworth One of my most favourite things to do is explore the planet that we share and when it comes to writing, it is always the settings that spark the stories for me. Today I want to share with you some of the wonderful places I love and the moments that […]

Guest Post by Cressida Cowell I am so happy that The Planet We Share is the theme of this year’s National Share a Story month, because nature and the outside world is a topic I feel very passionately about. Point 10 on my Waterstones Children’s Laureate Charter is that every child has the right to […]

Feature Post by Erin Hamilton The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates is being heralded as superb, hilarious and perfect for the current climate.  Funny children’s books are a breath of fresh air and supply the much-needed laughter in unprecedented situations.  Jenny Pearson kindly took time to answer my questions about her foray into publishing […]

Who could have known that the theme we chose for this year’s NSSM would be so overtaken by events worldwide?  That doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy NSSM2020 – we just need to do it in a different way than we would normally.   Due to me living in the country – and the Post Office […]

by Chris Routh This is the tenth year of the School Library Association’s Information Book Award and my fourth year as a member of the panel of judges. The number of books submitted for the award keeps growing, with almost 150 received this year! Copies of all the titles were sent to each of the […]

Guest Post by L.D.Lapinski At parents’ evening in year five, my mum and dad were told by my teacher that I had been repeatedly “caught” reading (with the open book on my lap under the table) when I should be working. I’d also been collared for standing books up and propping their pages open with […]

The final leg of our blog tour took a look at the three amazing titles that our teenaged voters chose as their shortlisted books for older readers. Golden Books Girl, Amy, started by telling us about book number 1; Becoming Dinah Written by Kit De Waal Published by Hachette Amy began by telling us more […]

Created by Erin Hamilton. As an avid reader I am always in awe of the authors whose books I have enjoyed.  I know they all put an incredible amount of time, effort and research into their works, ensuring they are relevant, factual and interesting.  Recently, I have had the honour of putting some questions to […]

Guest Post by Richard Jones, Author and Illustrator I began working for the library service just as I was finishing off a research degree.  I’d moved down from the Midlands to study illustration seven years earlier, and after graduating somehow found myself enrolled on a PhD studentship. It was an inspiring, happy and often frighting […]

Over the past couple of weeks, we have enjoyed reading posts from three more fantastic children’s book bloggers to help us celebrate the books in our Confident Readers category. Don’t worry if you missed any of them as we have put together a selection of the best bits from each. Rachel from Get Kids Into […]