Why authors and illustrators should think twice about going to Dubai lit fest

From climate change caused by CO2 emissions to human rights issues, author Jonathan Emmett makes the case for avoiding the Emirates Airline festival of literature in Dubai – what do you think?

Who dunnit? Top tips for writing detective fiction

From red herrings to maguffins to double identities, Knightley and Son author Rohan Gavin shares the secrets of writing great detective stories

Libraries and schools need free author visits, so I set up YA Shot

Cuts to library funding in schools and community mean author visits are a luxury that only some can afford, that’s why author Alexia Casale founded the YA Shot festival and programme to partner libraries and schools for author visits – here’s how your library system can apply to be part of YA Shot

World Book Day attempts world record-beating bumper books quiz

Love books? Love quizzes? You’re in for a World Book Day treat with the chance to make book quizzing history

Ask someone “How are you?”: a Blue Monday message

Even though it’s a horrible question for me to answer (because I don’t want to answer either way), I appreciate knowing that someone cares. Let me handle the awkwardness of the question – let’s end the stigma around mental health, a teen writes

The Adventures of Miss Petitfour by Anne Michaels – review

mangomix: ‘It was like I was experiencing all the adventures myself!’

Top 10 worriers in children’s literature

From Piglet and Little Mouse to Lola Rose, children’s books are full of worriers who face up to, and even overcome, their fears. Here are 10 of the best, from Wilf the Mighty Worrier author Georgia Pritchett

Russian censors target children’s books that break the mould

Publishing a children’s book in Russia is not a straightforward matter, as Anna Starobinets found when her detective stories set among woodland animals were deemed to be far too beastly for children

Top 10 parallel worlds in fiction

When you open the pages of a book you step into a parallel universe. From Narnia to Coraline, Christopher Edge picks his favourite stories that step through the looking glass

Ignorance and Want: why Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol is as relevant today as ever

Forget Tiny Tim Cratchit - there are two other child characters in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol that, for author Chris Priestley, are far more powerful: Ignorance and Want. Here’s why

How To Fight A Dragons Fury by Cressida Cowell – review

Elie8899: ‘This book is awesome; a truly fitting finale for such an amazing series’

What are the best children’s books of 2015?

Authors including David Almond, Chris Riddell and Louise O’Neill, Guardian children’s books editors plus teen readers reveal their top children’s and teen reads of 2015

Older children reviews – animal magic

A menagerie of animal stories for Christmas – plus Sandi Toksvig’s tale of an Irish tomboy

‘Oh, the places you’ll go!’ The best Dr Seuss quotes

In honour of the man behind the Grinch, the Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham and many, many other children’s classics, here are some of his best lines

50 years of Jackanory: what the TV show gave to me and other authors

On the 50th anniversary of Jackanory, Frank Cottrell Boyce on the massive impact of listening to Rik Mayall, Kenneth Williams and others read out loud on TV