The quest for bike-friendly children’s books in a world where cars rule

From cute cars to smiley emergency vehicles, kids’ culture is awash with rosy images of driving, so a new Mr Men book about cycling is a welcome read. What are your favourite cycling-friendly children’s books?

‘God, I love Oprah’ – what happened when I met my idol on the set of Wrinkle in Time

Oprah Winfrey is perhaps the biggest draw in Ava DuVernay’s film adaptation of the children’s classic – but behind the scenes it’s the noticeably diverse cast and crew that make this film stand out

Tracy Beaker, please never grow up

Jacqueline Wilson’s bolshie girl is now a single mum on a council estate. Raymond Briggs’s wordless Snowman is becoming a book for ‘a new and older audience’. Why can’t we leave kids’ books for kids?

Book clinic: what modern classics would you recommend for preteens?

Award-winning author Phil Earle selects a range of novels to enchant even the most accomplished young readers

Bookworm: A Memoir of Childhood Reading by Lucy Mangan review – nostalgic magic

This celebration of children’s literature excels in capturing the sense of wonder we find in our earliest books

The many tongues of Lost in Books, the only bookstore in Fairfield

Most of Fairfield, in Sydney’s west, speaks a language other than English – and now it has a bookstore to match

Fiction for older children reviews – snow quests, standup and skullduggery

A well-plotted comic quest from Harry Hill, a treat of a seafaring saga, and a Dickensian dystopia in which a fox leaves an orphanage in search of home

Jill Barklem obituary

Creator of the Brambly Hedge children’s books

Move over, Hermione Granger – now girls have real-life heroines to read about

Children are revelling in books that showcase female role models from Virginia Woolf to Venus Williams, says the freelance writer Lauren Chassebi

Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin review – moving story of a child migrant

The team behind the graphic novel versions of Colfer’s Artemis Fowl series change direction with this very real and affecting tale

The Wizards of Once by Cressida Cowell review – action-packed fantasy fun

Worlds collide when a young wizard meets a warrior princess in this action-packed adventure

Claire Zorn’s grief-and-surfing story wins children’s book of the year award

One Would Think the Deep triumphs in category for older readers, with Go Home, Cheeky Animals! winning early childhood prize in CBCA prizes

The Explorer by Katherine Rundell review – wildly exciting adventure

The gripping tale of four youngsters plunged into the Amazon forest will delight with its warmth and wisdom

Fiction for older children reviews – tales of the cities

London and New York both feature strongly in stories from both sides of the pond, while Room author Emma Donoghue makes her children’s fiction debut

Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson review – thrills and spills for girls

The fearsome, feminine world of roller derby is brought to life in this perceptive coming-of-teens graphic novel