Guest Post by Nizrana Farook What do you do when it’s the middle of winter and you’re writing while yearning for some sunshine and warmth? In my case, you write The Girl Who Stole an Elephant! It was December 2016/17 and I was writing a piece for my MA. I immediately set it somewhere hot, […]

Post written by Chris Routh, FCBG Chair. At this year’s Federation of Children’s Book Groups’ conference we will be marking the anniversaries of three different publishers.  Chicken House will be celebrating twenty years of focusing on publishing exciting new fiction. It was founded by Barry Cunningham who famously signed up J K Rowling while working […]

Guest Post with Paul Mason and Katy Riddell. In October last year a fantastic new book published by Stripes Publishing, The International Yeti Collective written by Paul Mason, and beautifully illustrated by Katy Riddell – daughter to children’s laureate Chris Riddell. We got to hear from this brilliant duo about the inspiration for the story, […]

Guest Post by Erin Hamilton, Committee Member of ICBG. I had the pleasure of meeting Onjali Q Rauf at a school event in October last year.  She was there to chat about The Boy at the Back of the Class and to introduce her latest book, The Star Outside my Window.  The children and adults […]

In October Amy Wilson released her newest title Shadows Of Winterspell, a book that sees the human world side by side with that of a world of magic. In this story much like her earlier titles A Girl Called Owl, A Far Away Magic, and Snowglobe the world of magic created for children to become […]

Guest post by Holly Webb The Runaways was inspired by a tiny piece of information that I came across six years ago, in Juliet Gardiner’s fantastic book Wartime: Britain 1939-1945, while I was researching Return to the Secret Garden. At least 400,000 pets – mainly cats – were destroyed in the week war broke out. […]

Guest Post by Simon Cheshire, author of Epic Tales of Triumph and Adventure, answering some questions about the heroes and villains in his new book. Q: In “Epic Tales of Triumph and Adventure” you describe the exploits of 66 extraordinary adventurers. What was it about the stories of these people in particular that meant they […]

Guest Post by Atinuke, author of the Anna Hibiscus series of picture books, writing about her experience of a vast and diverse continent. Since I was a little girl growing up in Nigeria I have been excited and inspired by the continent of Africa. I love the richness of my home continent. The colours, the […]

Artist and illustrator Sarah McMenemy talks about her public art commission for Transport for London, and reveals how she created the illustrations for the new book: The Story of the London Underground. It was exciting to be asked to illustrate The Story of London Underground. I like working on projects about London as it’s always […]

Helen Skelton is a television presenter, journalist, adventurer, multiple world record holder, and charity fundraiser extraordinaire. In this extract from the introduction to her book Wild Girl: How to Have Incredible Outdoor Adventures, Helen writes about what helped her become the adventurous woman she is today. I grew up on a farm in the middle […]