In September the Guardian published the 100 books of the 21st Century. It contained only five children’s books, two of which were published in the year 2000 – wrong century – and featured ZERO picture books. Outrage! I was spurred to action and rallied the troops on Twitter. Over 1000 votes and 600 nominated books later and I had what felt like a pretty representative list of the vast range of incredible children’s books published since 2001. Continue reading
SF Said, author of Varjak Paw and Phoenix believes that all children have the potential to be readers, they just have to find the right book for them, the breakthrough title that will turn them into a reader for life. I’ve spent long enough writing about the stories that turned me on to reading, and … Continue reading
The Best Children’s Books of the year featured war, a walking house, boats (so many boats), rockets, a rockstar, an unfortunate ape, a lost magician, mermaids and more war. This is 2018. The Day War Came by Nicola Davies illustrated by Rebecca Cobb Hard to choose a favourite book from Nicola Davies in a year … Continue reading
Like a pop star working out a contract they didn’t understand when they signed, because they were too busy slurping down Capri Sun to realise what they were letting themselves in for, I find myself, after six grueling years in the game, working on the inevitable Greatest Hits compilation. The twenty four best ever Christmas … Continue reading
The world of children’s books loves a ‘golden age’ and so do I. According to various experts there have been at least three, with most agreeing on the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century (from Alice to Pooh) as the first. Critics including Imogen Russell Williams and Amanda Craig have said we are living … Continue reading
Pirates, shipwrecks, voyages into the unknown, floods and mysterious strangers. Boats provide a useful function in children’s books. Over the next few months I’ll be writing about my fifty favourite adventures about boats. From fantastical nautical epics to salty graphic yarns, we’ll see how these stories form a central strand of children’s literature, and also … Continue reading
2017 was inevitably the year of Dust. Philip Pullman’s return to the world of His Dark Materials dominated the world of children’s books so completely that I’ve not quite been able to bring myself to read it yet. I think I’ll wait until the, ahem, dust has settled. In the meantime there were plenty of … Continue reading
Another end of year list, but mine’s much later than everybody else’s, so that’s alright! What a bumper year it’s been, and what a thankless task it is to try and select ten titles from across the world of children’s comics, picture books and novels. So high was the quality that I’ve had to leave out incredible, … Continue reading
Hot on the heels of yesterday’s list of my favourite picture books and graphic novels of 2015 comes another ten books for children, these ones containing more words than pictures. It’s a stupidly broad category that includes stories about trains, wolves, refugees, pills, Christmas, tigers and tapirs. And that’s just how I like it. Five … Continue reading
I’m sure you’ve seen quite enough end of year lists already, but a few people have asked, so here are some my favourites from 2015. First up a selection of the finest picture books and graphic novels from this ridiculously strong year. Imelda and the Goblin King by Briony May Smith (Flying Eye) I could … Continue reading
Having read Andy Miller’s ‘The Year of Reading Dangerously’, a book in which he changes his life by reading fifty classic books, I’ve been forced to take a long hard look at my own reading habits. Like most people I am not entirely honest about the books I read. Sometimes it’s just easier to say … Continue reading
I’m having a big dragon-fest at work recently, which has given me a good excuse to trawl some of my favourite picture book beasties, plus some brand new ones. In the 1960s Tove Jansson, best known for creating her very own Moomin shaped folk legends, turned her hand to illustrating some British children’s classics including … Continue reading
