Poem: Decorating the Tree, written for London’s Trafalgar Square Christmas tree
Read Decorating the Tree, a poem writtne by children, poets and Kevin Crossley-Holland to celebrate the lighting of the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree in London
Meet the new Harry Potter artist, Jim Kay
Jim Kay, the Carnegie medal-winning illustrator of Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls, has been chosen to illustrate all seven Harry Potter books in full colour and design the new book jacket image. He explains how he'll tackle the commission and why it was accompanied by 'an implosion of brain-freezing terror'
Bear Grylls’s top 10 adventure stories
Adventurer and chief scout Bear Grylls chooses his favourite tales of survival and bravery, from Daniel Defoe to Michael Morpurgo
Reader reviews roundup
YOUR REVIEWS: More top secret diaries this week, as we peer into the worlds of dorks, undead detectives, and one dollar horses
Kaspar Prince of Cats by Michael Morpurgo – review
Rider: 'This is a story of a brave young boy who risked his life for a cat, on the Titanic...'
How to Train your Dragon by Cressida Cowell – review
Rider: 'If you haven't discovered the crazy but awesome series of How to Train your Dragon you are missing out'
Asterix and the Picts by Jean-Yves Ferri and Didier Conrad – review
HighKick and Pirate Bones: 'If you didn't already know this book wasn't written by the same writer then you wouldn't notice the difference'
Children take over the Southbank Centre for mass sleepover
The Imagine festival is back, putting children and storytelling centre stage on London's South Bank with a line-up of authors including Quentin Blake, Jacqueline Wilson and children's laureate Malorie Blackman
Reader reviews roundup
Calling all explorers, adventurers and intrepid investigators! Your reviews are heading into uncharted waters this week (and peeking their noses into some VERY top secret diaries...)
Robin Etherington’s top 10 comic books
The comic book creator picks his favourite graphic novels from the genre's 'oodles of awesomeness' encompassing Asterix to Akira
Emily Feather and the Secret Mirror by Holly Webb – review
Beth - Millenium RIOT Readers: 'I haven't read the first book in this series but I enjoyed this story nonetheless. I liked Emily and the story was pretty good'
Quickfire interview: Mairi Hedderwick
The Scottish author and illustrator, best known for the Katie Morag series of children's picture books set on the Isle of Struay, takes on the Guardian children's books quickfire interview
Maps by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski – review
BookTrain125: 'it did not have all the countries, which was disappointing. Other than that it was fascinating'
Reader reviews roundup
YOUR REVIEWS: Some vile visitors have come a-knocking at the site, and we're turning invisible (and so is JK Rowling!) Haven't a clue what we're on about? Enter this week's reader reviews roundup and find out...