Entries by FCBG blog

Dadbot by Jack Noel

Check out our guest blog from Jack Noel about Dadbot, his new graphic novel! I love comics! I loved comics when I was a beautiful little boy and I love comics now I am a grisly old dad. I like comics because, well … see how boring these words are? I grew up in the […]

Children’s Book Award Round Up

Welcome to the blog tour round up for the Children’s Book Award 2025. This week we celebrated the titles in the Books for Older Readers Category.  We had hoped to have a guest blog from each of our shortlisted authors but unfortunately, Sam Sedgman has been on a book tour and unable to write for […]

Q&A with James Davis, author of Scarlett, Defender of the Universe

Meet Scarlet, Defender of the Universe by James Davis! After reading, we had some interesting questions for the author about this character and the story- check out his answer’s below!   Where did the idea for Scarlet and her story come from? It started as an idea about a zoo on a different planet, which […]

Children’s Book Award Round Up- Books for Younger Readers

Every year as part of the Top Ten Announcement for the Children’s Book Award, we ask popular bloggers to host a special blog tour to celebrate the most popular books, as voted on solely by children across the UK.  We launched the Top Ten shortlist on 3rd March and have a spectacular line up of […]

Q&A with Steve Tomecek, author of The Greatest Stuff on Earth

We love a Q&A with authors and illustrators- it gives us great insight into where their book began and how it came to be! Check out today’s with Steve Tomecek, author of The Greatest Stuff on Earth. Q&A with Steve Tomecek, author of The Greatest Stuff on Earth The Greatest Stuff on Earth is a […]

Let’s Play Rugby by Paul Howard

Let’s Play Rugby was co-written by Paul Howard and Gordon D’Arcy. In our blog today, Paul shares how co-authoring worked for them. Co-authoring children’s books with Gordon D’Arcy has been one of the happiest twists that my career as a writer has taken. Gordon and I actually knew each other in a previous life, long […]

The Children’s Book Award shortlist for 2025

The Children’s Book Award shortlist for 2025 We’re delighted to announce the Children’s Book Award 2025 shortlist today. Children from the 10 FCBG testing groups read over 600 books submitted by the publishers and registered over 55,000 votes, from which the Top 10 has been selected. The full shortlist is as follows: Books for Younger […]

Kwesi and Nana Ruby Learn to Swim by Kobina Commeh

We have a lovely guest blog today from author Kobina Commeh, about his book, Kwesi and Nana Ruby learn to swim. It tells where the idea for the story came from!   Kwesi and Nana Ruby Learn to Swim: From Water to Paper by Kobina Commeh My two heroes plopped into the deep end of […]

A judge’s eye view on the Branford Boase Award

Phoebe Demeger is the Librarian at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) and she’s a judge on this year’s Branford Boase Award, which highlights the year’s outstanding debut novels for children and young people. She has also just joined the judging panel for the Little Rebels Prize and sits on the World Book […]

Calling All Young Writers! Enter the Stories for Change Competition!

Calling All Young Writers! Enter the Stories for Change Competition! Guppy Books and the Federation of Children’s Book Groups are thrilled to announce Stories for Change – a short story competition for children aged 7-12, inspired by the themes of National Share a Story Month 2025 and Maggie Blue and the Lost Child by Anna […]