Picture books for children – reviews

A rowdy camel, hippo and alligator unite an uptight family, while Darwin’s seminal study is retold in pictures

The Creativity Code by Marcus du Sautoy – review

A wide-ranging study claims that, whether in mathematics or the arts, computers won’t create anything of value unless they acquire consciousness

The activist has assembled a dossier on gender inequality that demands urgent action

Two engaging writers offer contrasting routes to the mess the UK finds itself in today

A fascinating debut explores the life of a young Kuwaiti woman and Kate Atkinson’s MI5 spy revisits her war years

Sci-fi meets forbidden love in a debut novel spanning centuries and continents

Tara McEvoy on Terrance Hayes’s American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin, a collection that explores the form’s boundaries

Yoshan Koshy’s piece on a twisty, topical collection of tweets was highly commended in this year’s Observer/Anthony Burgess prize

This year’s prize for arts journalism goes to Jason Watkins for his review of Daisy Campbell’s Pigspurt’s Daughter

A pioneering look at motherhood from Sarah Knott and an often poignant study of those who, for whatever reason, do not become parents by Lorna Gibb

Layers of memory and self, real and imagined, reveal deep patterns in this complex novel

Diana Athill, Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout all provide wisdom and humour in times of need

Adam Higginbotham’s pacy narrative of the disaster is complemented by Kate Brown’s astonishing research into what came after

This exuberant debut is a swirling, multi-generational tale that shifts from the historical to the futuristic

Vanity, gold and tokens of love – how a miniaturist persuaded Tudor England that painters weren’t just artisans but artists