Featuring a community of strange creatures who live along the Livonian coast, in the north of Latvia, these interconnected stories follow the anxieties and existential crises of the creatures, gently satirising their preoccupations and suggesting solutions with empathy and wisdom. These are tales with shades of Tove Jansson’s Moomins and The Summer Book, as well […]
Congratulations to Kate Winter for winning the Klaus Flugge Prize 2024. We have a wonderful guest blog from Kate to celebrate The Fossil Hunter! Following in the Footsteps of a Fossil Hunter by Kate Winter As an author and illustrator, I always try to find a way to inhabit the characters in my books […]
Discover more about the inaugural SAIL Fest that took place recently at The British Library. Celebrating SAIL Fest – the new South Asian Children’s Illustration and Literature Festival by co-founder, Sinéad Gosai SAIL Festival is the exciting new South Asian illustration and literature festival that’s dedicated to celebrating, connecting and empowering South Asian children’s […]
AI is certainly no longer a hype but something that both intrigues and concerns the world. Author, Neil Taylor offers some insight into AI as it features in his novel, Anticipation. Myth Busting AI My name is Neil Taylor, and I recently wrote a fictional novel called Anticipation in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays […]
This is a brilliant guest blog from author S.J. Baker about dystopian fiction for teens. There is certainly a large appetite for this type of book! The power and popularity of dystopian fiction among young adult readers. “You write well,” said the literary agent in response to my submission, “but YA dystopias are a crowded […]
Matt Goodfellow’s verse novel The Final Year (Otter-Barry Books) is one of the books of the year, winning its category in the Children’s Book Award as well as this year’s CLiPPA, CLPE Children’s Poetry Award. The Final Year draws on Matt’s experience as a primary school teacher but in this special article, he explains that […]
Sally Gardner has written a lovely and honest blog for us about Pernickety-Boo, her latest book. It comes from wanting a place to call home and to feel that sense of belonging. Thank you Sally for your words. The idea of Pernickety-Boo came to me when I was in the middle of writing another book. […]
We are delighted to share a guest blog from John Hearne, author of Someone’s Been Messing with Reality. He writes about his main character and how to avoid the cliche’s around giving characters superpowers! Characters with Special Abilities: Make cliché-avoidance your super power The kid with superpowers is one of most popular tropes in […]
We love a Q&A on the FCBG blog, especially when both author and illustrator get involved. James Turner and Steve May are the duo behind Poo Crew Adventures, a new graphic novel series and we are so pleased they found time to answer our questions. Why poo? Who came up with the initial idea to […]
Author, Abiola Bello shares her inspirations for her books with us in today’s blog. She is surrounded by creativity and we look forward to reading more of her books! The question I get asked the most from readers is how do I seek inspiration for my YA books. A lot of it comes from my […]
