How Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights changed my life
Martin Stewart knew he wanted to be a writer but didn’t know what kind – until he read Philip Pullman’s elegant, imaginative and insightful masterwork
Why we shouldn’t protect teenagers from controversial issues in fiction
There are certain subjects – sex, drink, drugs, violence – that light fires and push buttons. So how do you write about them for teenagers? YA author Chris Vick shares the guidelines he sets himself to get the balance right
Eliza Wass: I couldn’t conceive of what life would be like if I were not religious
Teen author Eliza Wass grew up in a religious community so strict that she didn’t meet anybody from outside of it until the age of 22. Now she’s written a book for people who dream of a different life but feel trapped in the one they’ve been given
Michael Rosen’s greatest quotes to mark his 70th birthday!
Happy 70th birthday to poetry and prose pro Michael Rosen – here are some of our favourite quotes to celebrate the big day
The story that taught me we have to look back to understand ourselves
Reading HE Marshall’s Our Island Story as a 10-year-old changed the way children’s author Kevin Crossley-Holland thought about the world forever
Have the Locus awards been hit with ‘myopic sexism’?
An all-male shortlist for YA fiction has left the Locus awards mired in controversy – but prejudice is an unavoidable part of any literary prize
Tanya Landman: why I write historical fiction
The past offers so many possibilities, says Tanya Landman, winner of last year’s Carnegie medal with Buffalo Soldier, which is set in 19th-century America
Star Wars’ Daisy Ridley to play Ophelia in take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Film will be based on Lisa Klein’s novel, which imagines a version of the young noblewoman who is secretly married to the prince of Denmark
Top 10 dragons in fiction
From Smaug and Draco to Maleficent and Toothless, dragons range from the magnificent and terrifying to the tiny and adorable. Here are Julie Kagawa’s fictional favourites
If The Borrowers are ‘unviable’, what about other children’s classics?
A shocking new report claims that Mary Norton’s miniature people would struggle to survive in real life, casting doubt on many other much-loved characters from childhood reading
Listen to Rick Riordan reading from The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle
It’s the book Percy Jackson fans been waiting for the world over… the first in Rick Riordan’s new The Trials of Apollo series is finally published – and to celebrate here’s Rick reading some of it out loud!
The Day the War Came – a poem about unaccompanied child refugees
Children’s author Nicola Davies has written this poem in response to the government’s decision not to allow lone refugee children a safe haven in the UK
The moment Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes made me a reader
At eight years old, the very last thing Gavin Puckett wanted to do in his spare time was read a book – reading was tedious and to be done at school. Then he discovered Roald Dahl’s Revolting Rhymes and everything changed
The best starter graphic novels for YA readers
The world of graphic novels can be hard to navigate, especially if you’re not a superhero fan. Here are seven of the best introductions to the genre for teens
Rick Riordan: ‘I’m hardly the first to modernise Greek myths’
The author of the bestselling Percy Jackson series talks to Tim Adams about getting kids to read, including his own