Who are your favourite fictional heroes?

It's Children's Book Week and the theme this year is heroes and heroines. We want to know your favourite fictional heroes and Laura Ann Barton runs through some of the likely contenders to get you started

Top tips for writing animals with human characteristics: Jennifer Gray

Jennifer Gray, author of the Atticus Cattypus Grammaticus Claw stories, which feature a loveable rogue cat based on her own pet, shares her tips for writing animal characters

Mathamagical by Colin Davies – review

Ilya S Piranha: 'A strange world called Mathamagical whose people are numbers and hold a chicken versus egg race every year'

Emerald Star by Jacqueline Wilson – review

MarsBar27: 'A brilliant end-of-series novel, the sort with just the right amount of tragedy, love, adventure and excitement'

Jasmine Skies by Sita Brahmachari – review

HorseLover3000: 'This book is entertaining, funny, sad and definitely thought provoking'

Why aren’t there more musical instruments in children’s books?

Hannah Nepil: Paddington plays the harmonica, and Irene delights her Malory Towers pals with the piano - but where are all the other budding virtuosi in children's fiction?

Belinda Rapley’s top 10 horse books

The Pony Detectives author picks her favourite pony reads, from Black Beauty to War Horse

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling – review

Awesome-Charlie: 'I really love Hermione because she is such a muggle yet such a witch, which makes it amazing!'

Lolly Luck by Ellie Daines – review

Awesome-Charlie: 'The storyline of this book is a bit jumbled up and doesn't really make sense in some parts, but overall I think this book is good'

JK Rowling’s next book ‘very likely’ to be a children’s book

JK Rowling has held out hope for Harry Potter fans on the eve of publication of her adult novel, The Casual Vacancy

Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz and Francesca Simon write World Book Day £1 books

Discover which authors are writing the new batch of World Book Day £1 books

Pottermore: the latest verdict on JK Rowling’s web wonderland

Our Pottermore correspondent, Shoshana Kessler, reports on the latest additions to JK Rowling's magical online world, from Cornish pixies to crashing browsers