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
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
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
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
From Doctor Strange to Dr Seuss: Benedict Cumberbatch is new Grinch
Sherlock star to voice the curmudgeonly festive party pooper previously portrayed on screen by Jim Carrey and Boris Karloff
Why writing diverse children’s books is tough
What’s the point of having another shoddily-realised feisty girl or two-dimensional token wheelchair sidekick to add to the massive pile of rubbish attempts at diversity? Author Ross Montgomery on why it’s hard to write diverse – but that’s no excuse not to
‘Life was so interesting she had to find out what happened next’: Beverly Cleary’s greatest quotes
She’s the writer behind the gloriously mischievous Ramona Quimby, has sold over 91 million books worldwide and on top of all that, Beverly Cleary has just turned 100 years old! As she celebrates an exuberant centenary, we take a look at her greatest ever quotes. Happy birthday Beverly!
Enter our Frank Cottrell Boyce Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth competition
We have three signed and dedicated copies of Frank Cottrell Boyce’s new book Sputnik’s Guide to Life on Earth as well as Sputnik goodies to give away! Five to 18 year-olds can enter by emailing childrens.books@theguardian.com with the heading ‘Sputnik’ by 18 April 2016. But read these Ts and Cs first please!
The Adventures of Miss Petitfour by Anne Michaels and Emma Block – review
Myth-hill: ‘it was a fun way to learn some new tricky words and I think it will also help me write more exciting stories myself’
Cressida Cowell: ‘I encourage you to be creative. It’s part of my job’
The creator of Hiccup and Toothless spoke to site member Krazy Kesh at the Imagine Children’s Festival 2016 to talk about the end of How to Train Your Dragon, what inspired the series and how it changed over a decade of writing
Top 10 facts about jellyfish
They’ve been around for at least 600 million years – before dinosaurs, bony fish, insects, trees, flowers or fungi – and survived five mass extinctions. Ali Benjamin tells us why she is deeply fascinated by jellyfish
Fiction for older children reviews – tales of gumption and cunning
Alexander McCall Smith gives us a lion tamer, Sophie Thompson a zoo keeper, and Lucy Worsley medieval sex and violence…
Serge Bloch’s crazy gifs to help your imagination soar!
A chance to see an asparagus forest come to life and witness the strange little men frolicking in your loo roll… iconic illustrator Serge Bloch opens a window into his mind with these re-imaginings of ordinary objects as gifs and hopes you want to come and play too