Rick Yancey: ‘Without trust and cooperation, we’re doomed’

As the 5th Wave trilogy reaches its conclusion with The Last Star, site member Pedro got to talk to Rick Yancey about the author’s hopes and fears for the future of humankind and why he dreams of being invited to the White House

Stephen King’s The Body made me feel like I was 11 again

When Stewart Foster read The Body, the book later made into the movie Stand by Me, it triggered memories of his own happy school days to come back to life – and inspired him to become a writer

PJ Lynch is Ireland’s new children’s laureate

The year of the ‘big picture’: author and illustrator PJ Lynch is announced the fourth Laureate na nÓg in Dublin

Win an original drawing by William Grill – competition

To celebrate the publication of his new book The Wolves Of Currumpaw, Kate Greenaway-winning author and illustrator William Grill is giving away an original drawing, the view from Capulin Volcano in New Mexico

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

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

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!