Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels
A secret day out at the seaside; a celebration of wildflowers; dinosaurs, spies and children with superpowers
Danica Novgorodoff wins Kate Greenaway medal for graphic novel Long Way Down
Judges praise ‘incredible’ version of Jason Reynolds’ novel while Katya Balen wins the Carnegie medal for her ‘evocative’ second book October, October
Murdering the competition: Richard Osman thriller tops UK library loans
Stats from 2020-21 reveal that the Pointless presenter’s The Thursday Murder Club is the biggest hit in UK libraries
Cressida Cowell renews call for £100m investment in primary school libraries
The outgoing children’s laureate has transformed six primary schools through her Life-changing Libraries initiative, but says a ringfenced fund is needed for lasting impact
‘A visceral experience of psychosis’: why one artist spent three years painting bipolar disorder
Creativity has been Matt Ottley’s salvation – but for the artist, composer and children’s book author, it has come at a terrible price
Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels
A call to embrace wildness, a guide to shells, a tall tree tale, wishing candles, paper spirits, and a tough apology to make
Sabba Khan and Maisie Chan triumph in Jhalak prizes for writers of colour
Khan wins for her ‘timeless’ debut graphic novel, The Roles We Play, while Chan takes the children’s and YA award for Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths
Tony Ross: ‘I wasn’t at all like Horrid Henry when I was a boy’
The author and illustrator, 83, tells Donna Ferguson about working with Roald Dahl, his three happy marriages, feeling sorry for optimists and being brought up in the Blitz
I Want My Hat Back: Jon Klassen classic goes from shoebox-sized puppet show to the stage
Two friends delighted half a million kids with a tiny production in a cardboard box. Now they’re sizing up the much-loved bulbous bear for the Little Angel theatre
Harry Potter and the missing sketches: JK Rowling’s first drawings of boy wizard
Author’s original drawings for her first Hogwarts novel to appear in print – alongside the return of a mysterious wizard
Bedtime Story by Chloe Hooper review – an extraordinary treasure of hope and grief
The acclaimed author seeks ‘the perfect children’s picture book of death’ to help her sons – and herself – come to terms with their father’s illness
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to give books to refugee children
Singer’s global initiative to offer a book each month to 200 refugee children in London until they turn five
Children’s book on the Queen’s jubilee given cold shoulder by schools in Wales and Scotland
Details released of tale about Queen’s 70-year reign, which is felt to be too ‘Anglocentric’ by devolved governments
Children’s author Simon James Green: ‘I just wanted to show LGBT+ kids that it’s not all doom and gloom’
The gay writer who was banned from visiting a London school discusses why young LGBT+ people need representation more than ever
‘Life is short, so you have to get on with it’: AF Steadman on unicorns, leaving law and her record-breaking book deal
Eight years after her vision of a mythical beast, the author is about to publish the first novel in the Skandar Smith trilogy. She talks about childhood and taking a chance on a dream career