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

Carnegie medal and Kate Greenaway shortlists 2016 announced

Patrick Ness and Chris Riddell are up for hat tricks again this year. Discover all the shortlisted writers and illustrators for the 2016 medals – how many books on the shortlist have you read?

What are the best children’s books on science?

From the environmental classic Dear Greenpeace to out of this world books about space, the Book Doctor celebrates science week with book choices to inspire the scientists of the future

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren – review

EpicEmily: ‘The pictures are drawn by Lauren Child so they are very creative’

Book lovers smash quiz world record for World Book Day

Over six thousand readers take a new Guinness World Records title for World Book Day

Top 10 adventure stories inspired by Wales

To celebrate St David’s Day Jenny Nimmo has chosen her 10 favourite children’s adventures stories inspired by the landscape of Wales, from Alan Garner’s The Owl Service to Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach

What are the best children’s fantasy book series?

From Ursula K le Guin’s Earthsea sequence to Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom trilogy, the Book Doctor recommends epic fantasy books to tweens and young teens who want something like Game of Thrones but without the sex and violence

How fantasy can inspire us to live in the real world

In a children’s literary universe dominated by dystopian governments and terminally ill patients, don’t be afraid to get lost in a completely different world (possibly with dragons) – here’s what you might learn!

Why are so many children’s fantasy books adapted as films?

Fantasy is a genre that has dominated children’s literature over the years, with JRR Tolkien, JK Rowling and Suzanne Collins spearheading the way in the crossover realm of book to film adaptation. So why is cinema recreating their fantastical lands? And what does the future hold?

Booky things to do this half term!

Wondering what to do this half term? We round up some of the best book-based events taking place up and down the UK during the school holiday