Clementine Florentine is a laugh-out-loud romp with a creative and hugely relatable lead character. Plus its packed with three of our favourite things: poetry, punk music and parrots! Here author Tasha Harrison tells us all about her favourite funny books, inspiring teachers and writing gross poo stories for kids.
It’s shocking to watch events unfolding in Ukraine and, understandably, many children have a lot of questions and concerns about what is happening. We’re huge advocates of books for helping children to explore their feelings, practise empathy and develop their understanding of the world around them. With that in mind, we’ve put together this list of 13 books that you might find a useful starting point for talking with children about the war in Ukraine and its impact:
World Book Day 2022 is nearly here! This year’s line up of authors includes some of our all-time favourites and we expect you’re going to have a tricky time choosing which of the brilliant World Book Day books for 2022 to take home with you. Never fear, we’re here to help…
Our Cockatoo book for this month is How I Saved the World in a Week by Polly Ho-Yen and it’s just as exciting and dramatic as it sounds. Survival skills, zombies, a mysterious virus, an epic road trip and kids saving the world - this book has it all! We are huge fans of Polly’s books and were delighted to have the chance to ask her more about what inspired Billy’s story.
Our Macaw subscribers faced a tough choice this month between two highly original and thought-provoking books, including the Costa Children's Book Award-shortlisted Maggie Blue and the Dark World. We asked author Anna Goodall to tell us all about what inspired the book and which fantasy books for young readers she would recommend you turn to next.
One of the two books we sent our Macaw subscribers this month is a thrilling, mysterious sci-fi adventure that had us hooked from the very first page! Boy in a White Roomtakes the reader inside a virtual reality packed with twists and turns, raising some fascinating questions along the way. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to ask the author, Karl Olsberg, what inspired the book.
An Alien in the Jam Factory has it all - aliens, jam, doughnuts, snails, one dastardly and very dodgy villain, and one brilliant kid fizzing with ideas that will save the day! It’s a hilarious adventure, brilliantly illustrated by Jenny Taylor. We quizzed author Chrissie Sains on what inspired the book and which illustrated chapter books for younger readers she thinks you should read next.
This month we sent our Cockatoo subscribers Secrets of a Schoolyard Millionaire, a thrilling and hilarious romp starring one of our favourite lead characters of 2021. In this exclusive video, author Nat Amoore tells us all about what inspired the book, which other funny books she would recommend you read next, and what shewould do with a million dollars...
This month our Parakeet subscribers are reading a fun, charming and important book that is perfect for initiating family conversations about anxiety. The Worries: Sohal Finds a Friend is the first book in a new series by Jion Sheibani. Here Jion tells us more about what inspired her to create the book and which illustrate chapter books for younger readers she would recommend you turn to next.
Our Beautiful Game is a moving historical story, set during the First World War and inspired by the incredible real-life story of trailblazing women’s footballer Lily Parr and her peers. Here we ask the book’s author, Lou Kuenzler, to tell us more about what inspired the book and which historical books for kids she would recommend you read next.
It is yet another bumper year for festive books for children. It’s one of our favourite genres – there’s nothing like a really Christmassy read to get you in the festive spirit! Of course, there are the classics that we all go back to year after year, but which new titles should you be adding to your collection this year? Here is our pick of six of the best new Christmas books for kids published in 2021.
The world of books for teenagers and young adults is hugely rich and varied. If you’re new to YA books, though, it can be difficult to know where to start. And if you have a young teen at home who is ready to move on from middle grade fiction, where do you point them first? Here we give you the low-down on the YA books and authors that we think represent the best of this exciting genre.
