Sarah Crossan: how writing about conjoined twins changed the way I wrote

Sarah Crossan had never felt the urge for research time before writing her books, the real world research had always come later for the final edit. But when she wrote One, her novel about conjoined twins Tippi and Grace, everything changed

Megan Rix meets real elephants – video

Watch author Megan Rix on a fascinating research trip for her new book The Runaways, as she meets a herd of elephants

The Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell – review

BookieCookie: ‘Katherine Rundell builds up the tension extremely well, with their encounters with the ruthless Rakov keeping you on the edge of your seat’

Poetry secrets: How to read a poem aloud

Poet Paul Cookson orders you to unzip your lips and get poetry off the page and into the air

Top 10 poems about light

On National Poetry day, 10 poets picks their favourite poems about light. Read them all here

A firefighter, a physicist and a fire dancer read poems about light

Finding a firefighter willing to read a poem was not the easiest task, poet Liz Brownlee found, when she started searching for people whose lives are involved some way in light to be filmed reading poems about light for National Poetry Day. Watch the results of her project in these films

Selina Nwulu, young poet laureate for London: it’s powerful to write about big ideas through human stories

Selina Nwulu, the new young poet laureate for London, sets out her poetry stall for the year ahead - and wants to know your recommendations of poets and poetry

Poetry secrets: how to write a poem on a theme

Poet Roger Stevens reveals his techniques for writing a poem on a specific topic

How to Fight a Dragon’s Fury by Cressida Cowell – review

Myth-hill: ‘I would love to go into my garden and discover a Riproarer or maybe a triple-headed Deadly Shadow’

Dyslexia poems by Sally Gardner and Ros Asquith

In Dyslexia Awareness Week we have two beautiful poems, DyslexiaaAAARGH by Ros Asquith and The Box by Sally Gardner (who is herself dyslexic) which explore the frustrations as well as the upsides of dyslexia

James Dawson: how I stopped hating poetry and became a poet

When teen author James Dawson was growing up he dreaded poetry lessons, but the fuzzy line between songwriting and poetry slowly changed all that – and now he’s finally out of the poetry closet

What’s the best poetry for children?

Poetry recommendations for you’ve grown out of rhyming picture books and aren’t old enough for teen reads from The Book Doctor, including Laura Dockrill, Malorie Blackman, Sarah Crossan and Rachel Rooney

Welcome to our poetry-themed week – an overview

Catch up with everything we did in our themed poetry week 2015

Mars: leave it well alone!

Writer Paul Magrs has always had an affinity with Mars (not least because that’s how his surname is said). The planet has always been an infinite space for his dreams. Now, for the sake of our imagination - and even possible Martians - he’s hoping for a halt to explorations

Can children’s books help build a better world?

Author SF Said on how almost all the world’s problems come down to ‘us and them’ – and how children’s books can knock down the barriers