Guest Post by Chris Routh Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books which is based in Newcastle, opened its doors on 19th August 2005 and has been engaging thousands of visitors in children’s literature through its exhibitions, events and education programme ever since. It’s a great place to visit if you live nearby or […]

Guest Post by Darren Simpson My debut children’s novel, Scavengers, was published by Usborne in March. It feels like aeons ago, thanks to the lifetime’s worth of emotion that’s been crammed into the last five months.  It took me a decade to get published and – on hindsight – that period was a gruelling, ten-year […]

Georgina Atwell, Founder of Toppsta, shares why she’s hoping for a “Full House” of books this summer At Toppsta we share the FCBG’s passion for getting children reading for pleasure and sharing their book recommendations. Often, reading is seen as homework and it can be hard to get kids excited about books, particularly when they have […]

A Guest Post by Tom Palmer This summer I took part in my first archaeological dig on the banks of Lake Windermere. We were excavating the foundations of one of the hostels where 300 children came to live in August 1945. Children who had survived the concentration camps of the Second World War, losing everyone […]

Written by Damaris Young My name is Damaris Young and I’m the author of The Switching Hour, a fantasy story aimed at 8-12-year-old readers. In my story, my main character must save her young brother from the Badeko, a dream eating creature that is awoken by a terrible drought.  The Switching Hour is influenced by […]

Guest post by Kimberlie Hamilton Everyone loves a story, right? As a children’s author who writes nonfiction about animals, nothing made me happier than to learn recently about a wildly innovative idea to bolster children’s reading skills – having kids read to dogs. Yes, really. As it turns out, reading to dogs helps improve children’s […]

Guest Post by Caryl Hart Hate crime is on the up. You only have to scroll down a few comments on social media to witness the full force of xenophobia, intolerance and bullying that is sadly too prevalent in our society today.  The Office of National Statistics reports that crime motivated by hostility or prejudice […]

Q&A with Sue Wallman Can you describe Dead Popular in five words? Queen bee rivalry is dangerous What inspired you to write Dead Popular? I’m drawn to claustrophobic settings. When Linas Alsenas, my editor, suggested boarding school, I thought, “Perfect”. I positioned my elitist, fictional boarding school, Mount Norton, on the coastline where I grew […]

The 50th anniversary of the first human landing on the moonGuest Post by Christopher Riley From the moment I first saw artist Martin Impey’s paintings of the Apollo astronauts in 2009, I dreamed of finding a way to collaborate with him on a book. I loved how his artwork brought a new dimension to the […]

Guest Post by Daniel Gray-Barnett When I finished high-school, I had a big dilemma. Science vs Art. The problem was that I really enjoyed and was good at both, but which to follow as a career? I was ignorant and didn’t know that there were viable careers in the arts (other than being an art […]