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The Federation of Children’s Book Groups Blog
Winner Announced for the 2025 FCBG Children’s Book Award
Winner Announced for the 2025 FCBG Children’s Book Award The Federation of Children’s Book Groups is thrilled to announce that I Am Rebel by Ross Montgomery has been voted the Overall Winner of the 2025 Children’s Book Award. Now in its 45th year, the Children’s Book Award is proud to be one of the leading champions of children’s voices in […]
Meet The Wycherleys by Annaliese Avery
Meet The Wycherleys. Annaliese Avery I consider myself to be a very lucky writer when it comes to my characters. Thanks to my writing process – which is quite fluid and open, I often find that my characters appear in my imagination in the same way that a stranger does in real life. I am […]
Greek Myths just won’t die by Jennifer Claessen
Author Jennifer Classen shares some insights into her book, Netta Becker and the Timeline Crime! Greek myths just won’t die by Jennifer Classen I had the idea for the book which is now the snappily-titled ‘Netta Becker and the Timeline Crime’ on 1st September 2021. It is the first book of a trilogy and is […]
Shadow Thieves by Peter Burns
Shadow Thieves is to debut middle grade book from Peter Burns. He shares some insight into where it all began in our blog today! Ten years ago, I was on holiday in Highland Perthshire with my two oldest kids. We were staying in a cottage in the middle of nowhere, high on a hill surrounded […]
My Rice is Best by Selina Brown
Today’s blog features a Q&A with Selina Brown, author of My Rice is Best, a colourful celebration of food and friendship! Can you tell us where the idea for this story came from? The idea for My Rice is Best! came from the playful, long-standing debate between Caribbeans and Africans about who makes the […]
The Wild Before by Piers Torday
We have a blog from Piers Torday all about his interest in wildlife throughout his life. Another perfect link to our National Share A Story Month theme! I grew up in the valleys and moors of rural Northumberland, and my own curiosity about the natural world was fostered by the classic children’s books I enjoyed […]
Maybe you Might by Imogen Foxell
Maybe You Might: an interview with Imogen Foxell Maybe You Might, written by Imogen Foxell, illustrated by Anna Cunha and published by Lantana, is a lyrical and hopeful environmental fable that struck a chord with us as we were thinking about this year’s National Share a Story Month theme: Changing the World, One Book at […]
SuperQuesters Mission: River Crest Rescue by Paul Ian Cross
SuperQuesters Mission: River Crest Rescue by Paul Ian Cross SuperQuesters Mission: River Crest Rescue is a science-packed adventure chapter book featuring puzzles and experiments to try yourself. It is perfect for this year’s National Share-a-Story Month theme, Saving the World, One Book at a Time, as it includes environmental issues and how STEM can help […]
I don’t do Mountains by Barbara Henderson
Barbara Henderson shares her thoughts on how books can change the world, a perfect link to National Share A Story Month. Changing the world, one book at a time. Reading is a form of activism. I make no apologies for this fairly sweeping statement – I believe it to be absolutely true. By turning the […]
Bird Boy by Catherine Bruton
In today’s blog, Catherine Bruton shares her inspiration for Bird Boy. This books reflects the theme of National Share A Story month brilliantly. “Tell children stories and let them tell their stories. Through stories children can start to heal.” My name is Catherine Bruton and when I’m not writing books for children, I’m also a […]
Watch me Bloom by Krina Patel-Sage
The theme of National Share a Story Month 2025 is about changing the world through nurturing a love of the environment whether close to home or further away. Watch Me Bloom by Krina Patel-Sage (from Lantana Publishing), seemed to sum that up; we loved the way that it illustrates how connection to the natural world […]
The Bird Thief by Rachel Keating
Author Rachel Keating shares a very personal blog with us today about her Grandad and the inspiration for The Bird Thief. ‘My favourite eldest Granddaughter.’ Didn’t matter if I was aged 6 or 36, if it was written on the back of a newspaper cutting about British songbirds sent in the post or spoken softly […]
Mission Manta Ray by Philip Kavvadias
Mission Manta Ray is one of three book in Philip Kavvadias’s series and he shares insight into these books in his guest blog below. In my day job I help hundreds of companies set carbon reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement, in other words I help them make their contribution to keeping the […]
Land of the Last Wildcat by Lui Sit
Author Lui Sit shares her experiences and how they impacted her writing of Land of the Last Wildcat. If you told me, thirty odd years ago, when dressed as a koala doing acrobatics under the baking Australian sun, that the experience would culminate in my writing a children’s middle-grade book with underlying themes of conservation […]
Stories for Change Competition Winners
This year’s National Share–a–Story Month theme, “Changing the World, One Book at a Time”, celebrates the power of storytelling to inspire environmental awareness, hope, and action. In February, Guppy Books and the Federation of Children’s Book Groups launched Stories for Change – a short story writing competition for children aged 7-12, inspired by the themes […]
Imagine If….by Tamsin Rosewell
We have an enchanting blog post today from Tamsin Rosewell about being the illustrator for The Seamaiden’s Odyssey. Imagine if… Imagination is one of the most powerful forces on earth. As William Blake put it: ‘What is now known was once only imagined’. The human imagination is the driving force of huge things: it the […]
Q&A with Emily Gravett
Emily Gravett’s captivating books about Pete the Badger and his woodland friends introduce children to the importance of environmental issues in a gentle, hopeful, entertaining way. Tidy shows the need for wild spaces. Too Much Stuff looks at over-consumption. The latest in the series, Bothered By Bugs, explores the importance of insects to the ecosystems […]
Blue’s Planet Competition with Sweet Cherry Publishing
The Federation of Children’s Book Groups is excited to be partnering with Sweet Cherry Publishing to launch a special competition inspired by the environmental theme of National Share-a-Story Month 2025. Blue’s Planet by Lucy McRobert has been selected for our booklist partly because it’s a rollickingly good story with appealing illustrations. We also liked the […]