A round up of the Guardian children’s books site’s first world war week

One hundred years after the start of the first world war, we celebrate the incredible books for children and teenagers that help us understand what happened and why the impact is still being felt today

David Almond: ‘I love the beauty of the northern language’

The Newcastle novelist talks to Alison Flood about his inspirations – Lindisfarne, the shipyards, and his local dialect

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – review

TMandy: 'At Hogwarts Harry realises he's special and his adventures begin'

Judy Blume’s next book is one for adults to look forward to

Alison Flood: Like so many, I loved her books for children, but her fiction for adults is just as good, and her current project sounds terrific

How to read to babies without feeling ridiculous

Alison Flood: US paediatricians are urging parents to read to children from their earliest days, which is not easy with the youngest babies

How Josephine Pullein-Thompson’s pony tales carried away young readers

Alison Flood: The remarkable author, who has died aged 90, wrote nearly 50 children's books that transported me as a child. How about you?

Ansel Elgort: people are in love with Gus and I didn’t want to mess that up, I wanted to bring him to life the way fans of the book had imagined him

The actor that plays Gus in The Fault in Our Stars movie opens up about how much he cried when he first read the book, the challenges of the role, the awesomeness of John Green and how he would like to be Gandalf for a day

How to Train Your Dragon – watch the book trailer

To celebrate the release of the How To Train Your Dragon 2 movie, author Cressida Cowell has created this gorgeous minifilm narrated by David Tennant to remind people that the films are based on her wonderful books! The latest book in the series is The Incomplete Book of Dragons which brings the whole dragon world gloriously to life

Zoe Sugg’s YouTube success wins her two-book deal for novels

Known as Zoella to millions of viewers, her first book Girl Online will be a 'modern-day Notting Hill for teens' according to publisher

Should boys read boys?

Is it really true that boys want to read books about boys, written by men? Or is narcissism and sexism of the saddest, most damaging kind? Night School author CJ Daugherty makes the case the books should be gender free. What do you think? Join the discussion

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