The Worst Witch review – crafty show brims with magic

Mildred Hubble’s misadventures are told with wit and ingenuity in a touring production based on Jill Murphy’s books

Children’s and teens roundup: the best new picture books and novels

Mealtime wars, a puppy without a bark and crazy science … fun and facts for all ages in this month’s selection

Helen Oxenbury: ‘I used to hide books from my children – I couldn’t bear to read them again’

Ten Little Fingers, Clap Hands, Farmer Duck ... the pioneering illustrator talks to Lisa Allardice about her 50 year career and the real story behind We’re Going on a Bear Hunt

Judith Kerr: ‘I like this generation of teenagers. They seem kind and idealistic’

At 95, the author of The Tiger Who Came to Tea still works every day. ‘Stories are a huge comfort,’ she says over lunch at the Savoy

The best children’s books of 2018 for all ages

From celebrity-penned tales to fresh interpretations of the classics, here is our pick of the best for hungry readers from tots to teens

David Baddiel: ‘I’m unable, when I write a children’s book, not to have a bit of toilet stuff’

The TV comedian who helped bring us the football anthem Three Lions has become a prolific children’s author. How did it happen?

Is Watership Down really ‘just a story about rabbits’?

Richard Adams’s novel is, as he insisted, about unsentimentally observed animals. But his experience as a soldier left an undeniable mark on the story, too

Roald Dahl’s war medals delivered to family, 73 years late

Twenty-eight years after his death, the author’s decorations, earned as an airman during the second world war, have been received by his widow Felicity

Matt Haig: ‘You can go to the dark place and find the optimism in it’

The Reasons to Stay Alive author talks to Lisa Allardice about finding solace in children’s fiction, his Twitter addiction and why his breakdown made him happier

‘Mum this is me!’: the pop-up bookshop that only sells diverse children’s books

#ReadTheOnePercent, run by publisher Knights Of, has reopened in south London for Christmas – and after selling out its stock, is crowdfunding to become permanent

Mortal Engines: what Philip Reeve’s predator cities tell us about our world

The steampunk dystopia, Reeve explains, was not intended as a comment on capitalism. But as a new film version shows, his story looks less far-fetched these days

Mortal Engines review – Peter Jackson’s steampunk Star Wars stalls

Jackson has turned Philip Reeve’s dystopian adventure novel into a tiringly frenetic and derivative fantasy-adventure movie

P is for pterodactyl, T is for tsunami: the ‘worst alphabet book’ becomes a bestseller

A picture book dedicated to English’s strangest quirks has made the New York Times bestseller list with the publisher scrambling to reprint. How did the rapper behind it dream it up?

From Aesop to Adrian: books to inspire a love of reading

Tom Gates writer and illustrator Liz Pichon enjoys drama in the jungle, Milligan’s silly verse and The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole

Harry Potter and the 56 anniversary editions: endless tie-ins are diluting the magic

With so many versions of seven titles and several Fantastic Beasts film tie-ins, the books that changed my life are now being spun into dead weight