Quentin Blake’s Great Ormond Street ‘end of life’ gift for families of dying children
Parents who lost their son commission the illustrator to produce art for a new family room in the children’s hospital
Which children’s books sum up the decade they were published?
Brandon Robshaw (AKA the dad in Back in Time for Dinner) picks out the children’s books from the 1950s to the 2000s that seem to sum up each decade
Why is children’s poetry so invisible?
Chrissie Gittins says it’s time to get confident about children’s poetry, children love it – so publishers, bookshops and libraries should stop hiding it and start celebrating
Sample delights from the CLPE poetry award 2015 shortlist
Looking for great children’s poetry? Check out the brilliant collections that have been shortlisted for this year’s Centre for Literacy in Primary Education prize and sample some of the poems – plus find out how to get involved in the poetry award shadowing scheme
Zoella goes it alone with Girl Online 2
Zoe Sugg’s sequel to her record-breaking debut Girl Online will be written without the help of an editorial consultant, but with her editor instead
Cece Bell: I wanted to show what it felt like to be the only deaf kid at my school
An interview with the author of a remarkable, Newbery honour-winning, graphic novel El Deafo, based on Cece Bell’s own childhood growing up with hearing problems. The Whiteheath Book Ninjas got to find out why she wrote it
The Young Romantics poem of the year 2015
Read the poem that won Daniella Cugini first prize in the Keats-Shelley Young Romantics prize: Presence
Move over, sexy beasts, and make way for the real literary hero, Gilbert Blythe
The Anne of Green Gables male lead is a unique feminist dreamboat whose boots Darcy, Heathcliff and all other rivals in classic novels are unfit to tie
Unfolding drama: how Julia Donaldson’s Paper Dolls took flight
The much-loved picture book about loss, memory and motherhood has become a play at the Little Angel theatre. Its author, the puppet-maker Lyndie Wright, and the director, Peter Glanville, discuss a story that’s a family affair for all involved
The Paper Dolls review – Julia Donaldson adaptation is a puppet-powered weepie
This show has fun with the bestselling author’s 2012 picture book while honouring its sensitivity and emotional force
Webchat: the big climate change debate – as it happened
Read back through all the build up to our Twitter chat with authors and teenagers about climate change and other environmental issues, plus live updates as it happened
Why writing stories about climate change isn’t fantasy or sci-fi
Piers Torday loved reading end of the world books when he was growing up, and his Last Wild books have been dubbed “cli-fi” but if you think stories showing the effects of climate change are futuristic fantasies, think againRead the first chapter of the final book in the The Last Wild trilogy, The Wild Beyond
Which books deal with climate change for younger children?
From Michael Foreman’s groundbreaking Dinosaurs and All That Rubbish to Barroux’s near wordless Where’s the Elephant, The Book Doctor seeks out the best picture books to share with younger children who want to know about our threatened environment
What are the best eco books for children and teens?
Authors including David Almond, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Katherine Rundell plus teen site members share the books that made them think more deeply about climate change and environmental themes. Now share yours!
How dystopia hammers home the reality of climate change
It’s so easy not to really listen when the media (and science teachers) go on about climate change – but the cause of most dystopian societies in books, from The Hunger Games to Divergent, is invariably huge environmental disaster. Time to read, sit up, learn and then take action before its too late