Welcome to the this month’s look at what has been happening in the world of children’s books. It has been a frantically busy month and some of the items that I have included feel as though they took place a long time ago now. I have omitted some news as otherwise this round up would be far too long to get through. However, I hope that the taste I have provided here is helpful and will help you plan for the forthcoming Summer Term too.

What I’m reading….

My stand out read of the last month is the new novella for Barrington Stoke by Anthony McGowan, The Beck. Although lighter in tone than Lark it possesses many of the qualities that made his Carnegie award winner both acclaimed and popular. There is great humour to balance the moments of poignancy and a pitch perfect relationship between an eccentric Grandad and his slightly awkward grandson. The Beck is a wonderful reminder of the importance of nature on our doorstep, wherever that may be, and a unsentimental and warm look at family love in its many forms. I loved this and you can read more in my review.

Farshore have recently published a teen edition of Normal Women: Making History for 900 Years by Philippa Gregory illustrated by Alexis Snell and this would be a useful addition to secondary school libraries and classrooms. Impressively researched and full of fascinating facts the book can be dipped into to learn more about specific historical periods or read as a narrative. Personally I found the author’s frequent notes and asides a little distracting but they do provide her opinion and highlight key points which may be helpful and add a personal touch for the intended audience.

Turning to picture books I reviewed one for cat lovers for Just Imagine this month. Moggie McFlea The Witch’s Cat by Anna Kemp illustrated by Adam Beer is a jolly rhyming story that could prompt a conversation with young children about behaviour. The attractive pen and ink illustrations by Adam Beer convey the characters’ emotions wonderfully with Moggie’s changing demeanour and expressions being particularly amusing. Fun to read aloud and a delightful twist on the usual ‘wicked witch’ stories.

Regular readers of my blog will know how much I enjoy sharing books with my two year old grandson. We have had a very happy time enjoying some of the latest publications from Priddy Books and you can find out more by reading about our experience here. Last but definitely not least 21st March is recognised globally as Down Syndrome Day and to mark the occasion I wrote about some recently published children’s books featuring characters with Down Syndrome. All of these would be valuable additions to school library and classroom bookshelves.

News, articles and resources…

The Reader Teacher: Books I’m Most Excited About for March – Scott Evans’ selection for March was just a little late for my last round up so I’m including it here in case you missed it. A wide variety of titles from picture books to information books and sure to include something for the young readers in your life.

The Reader Teacher: Children’s Books I’m Most Excited About for April – and here’s this month’s selection from Scott to add yet more books to your wish list. I have just read Becoming Grace by Hilary McKay and illus. by Keith Robinson and can add my vote to Scott’s as history and individual courage is brought to life and conveyed beautifully in this Barrington Stoke title.

FCBG: Children’s Book Award Shortlists Announced – The Children’s Book Award is the only national award for children’s books that is voted for entirely by children. It is owned and coordinated by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and is highly respected by teachers, parents and librarians. This year’s shortlists are in three categories: Books for Younger Children; Books for Younger Readers; and Books for Older Readers. I have taken part in the blog tour organised to mark the announcement of the shortlist here and you can find out more about all the shortlisted titles and the award via the website above and useful resources here. The deadline for voting is Friday 9th May and category winners and the overall winner of the most popular children’s book will be announced at a ceremony on 7th June.

Peters Children’s Book of the Year 2025 Winners Announced – School librarians, teachers and public libraries around the UK have voted Big Bad Wolf Investigates Fairy Tales by Catherine Cawthorne and Sara Ogilvie (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) the Peters Children’s Book of the Year for 2025. Winners have also been announced in the Picture Book, Junior Fiction and Teen Fiction categories, with Phil Earle’s ‘tale of unrequited love’ Northern Soul and ‘charming’ A Wild Walk to School by Rebecca Cobb scooping the awards in the Teen Fiction and Picture Book categories respectively. In the Junior Fiction category, Tom Percival’s Carnegie-longlisted and ‘highly-readable’ story of resilience, The Wrong Shoes, and Alistair Chisholm’s ‘gripping’ I Am Wolf received an equal number of public votes.

Carnegie Shortlists Announced -The Carnegies, the UK’s longest running book awards for children and young people, announced their 2025 shortlists at the London Book Fair earlier this month. 16 books have been shortlisted in total, with eight in each category for the Carnegie Medal for Writing and the Carnegie Medal for Illustration; whittled down from 35 longlisted titles by the judging panel, which includes 14 children’s and youth librarians from CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group. You can view both shortlists and find out more about the titles, authors and illustrators on the official website above.

HFL Education: Using World Book Day as a springboard to re-ignite reading for pleasure – World Book Day initiatives can be hugely effective in re-igniting reading for pleasure across the school, but how can we harness this enthusiasm and attention to re-focus the school community’s attention on the importance of enjoying reading? This helpful article gives guidance on how to nurture pupils into lifelong lovers of reading: to become people who choose to read.

Books for Keeps – this online journal is always full of interesting, informative and entertaining articles and interviews plus helpful reviews. Highlights of the March issue include an Authorgraph interview with Jenny McLachlan, Gregg Stobb’s Windows into Illustration, new Beyond the Secret Garden, new Picture This from Nicolette Jones, and important comment pieces on AI and book bans.

UKLA Book Award Shortlists Announcement – 87 teacher judges, who had been recruited to one of the four categories, have been reading and debating the 20 books longlisted in each category since September. The shortlists range from books suitable for young children aged 3+ to novels and information books for teen readers. The shortlisted titles in each category can be explored on the website.

Camilla Reid announced as BookTrust’s first ever Baby-and-Toddler Writer in Residence – Author Camilla Reid will take up post as BookTrust’s next Writer in Residence and the theme for her tenure will be ‘books are the best start in life’. Diana Gerald MBE, CEO of BookTrust, said: “It takes a whole community to make a reader, and we’re delighted that early years expert and author Camilla Reid is lending her voice as BookTrust’s latest Writer in Residence.” I like Camilla’s article Why interactive books are so good for babies… and adults! as she eloquently explains the shared joy that my 2 year old grandson and I experience when we read this type of book together.

‘Something magical is happening’: sales boom for children’s comics creating young readers of the future – a positive article in the Guardian celebrating the boom in sales of children’s comics and graphic novels.

Book Clubs in Schools 10th Birthday – Book Clubs in Schools (BCiS), the peer-to-peer schools book club charity, have announced Thursday 1^st May as the inaugural Book Clubs In Schools Day in celebration of their 10^th Anniversary.  The celebrations in May will feature online events with authors Tom Palmer, Sita Brahmachari and author/illustrator David Litchfield. Schools can get involved in the #BookClubsInSchoolsDay 10^th anniversary celebrations by signing up for the online events and running their own student-led book clubs with free resources available on the charity’s website. Please do visit their website to found out more.

VE Day 80 Commemoration with Mr Dilly Presents – On May 8th at 11am Mr Dilly is hosting a free online event which schools may watch live on on-demand later.  A Mr Dilly’s World of History event, this is perfect for KS2 & KS3 students (ages 7-14) in primary and secondary schools. Engaging storytelling meets powerful film – Featuring authentic WWII footage, Mr Dilly will bring to life a handful of real-life inspired characters from the time, including an Air Raid Warden, a soldier celebrating outside Buckingham Palace, a news reporter, and an East End civilian. There will also be a Q&A session for which schools may submit questions in advance.

Tom Palmer’s VE Day 80 Commemoration Resources – Award winning author Tom Palmer’s website is an excellent resource all year round but I would like to highlight the special resources Tom and his wife Rebecca have created linked to his book After the War, in which VE Day features, and his forthcoming picture book due out later this year. There is a quiz, poetry and a craft activity included and a video is to be added soon.

Alex Wheatle, novelist and ‘Brixton Bard’, dies aged 62 – this sad news was announced by Alex Wheatle’s family earlier this month. An award winning writer Alex Wheatle was held in high regard for both his writing and his inspiring work with young people. He was the patron of Book Clubs in Schools, mentioned above, and a few years ago I had the privilege of hearing him speak at An Audience With Nikki Gamble. A kind man who will be much missed by the children’s book community.

Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels – Sleepy monsters; a wacky broken robot; a search for magical treasures and more are included in Imogen Russell Williams’ selection this month. I was so pleased to see The Beck by Anthony McGowan featured and have now shuffled Wild Magic: Legend of the Black Lion Abiola Bello, illustrated by Emma McCann up my TBR mountain.

WRD Magazine – the Spring issue of this magazine is now available to read online for free. It is full of extracts of new books, interview and reviews and having subscribed for many years I know that this is popular. Suitable for age 8+.

Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2025 – The Cafe at the Edge of the Woods has won the Waterstones children’s book prize. Mikey Please’s book was inspired by game family played during lockdown, while Carlos Sánchez with Rune: The Tale of a Thousand Faces won in the young readers category and Nathanael Lessore’s King of Nothing was awarded the teens category prize.

CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award) Shortlist Announcement – “Patron Saint of Poetry” Roger McGough will host the LIVE online announcement of the 2025 CLiPPA shortlist, the year’s best new poetry for children at 2.15pm on Wednesday 23rd April. This virtual event will be beamed live into primary school classrooms across the country to start this year’s CLiPPA celebrations.  All schools in the UK are invited to attend the event and to receive their invitation, all schools need to do is to register for this year’s CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme. The unique CLiPPA Shadowing Scheme enables schools to explore the shortlist with their pupils, looking at the poems in depth and creating live performances of individual favourites. CLPE provide specially created support materials for teachers, including videos of the shortlisted poets. The resources are supplied free to schools when they register to take part. 

Register for the Empathy Day Festival – Jump into someone else’s story this June! Join the Empathy Day Festival happening in schools, libraries, bookshops or at home, and be part of a nationwide movement to foster empathy through stories, creating a world in which we all understand each other better. The Empathy Day Festival inspires children and young people to learn more about empathy, develop their empathy skills and put it into action. Running from 2-12 June, with Empathy Day on Thursday 12 June, EmpathyLab are on a mission to raise an empathy-educated generation, and are asking YOU to get involved. See the full programme, (including a nationwide assembly with Children’s Laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, an exclusive empathy-themed Draw with Rob session plus lots more, and register on the website link above to download your FREE resources, tips and ideas – and add your own event to the nationwide events map. Whose story are you going to jump into? 

Discover Irish Kids Books: A bumper month for younger readers this March – thank you to Mary Roche for making me aware of this brilliant selection of books, 12 new titles from Irish born or based writers and illustrators hitting book shops and libraries at the moment. From Monsters under the bed, to the treasures of Clew Bay these are a few brand new heart-warming tales for little people and their care givers. Compiled by award-winning and best-selling Irish Author Triona Campbell.

Children’s Books on the subject of neurodiversity or featuring neurodivergent characters – Veronica Price, a former school librarian and now health librarian, has put together a selection of books, published for children, that she has read and reviewed, which have a neurodiversity theme or neurodivergent main protagonist. Several of the included titles are written by authors with lived experience of neurodivergence. I have no doubt that many adults, both those working in education and those who are parents, will find this list useful.

Literacy Hive: Literacy Calendar – this is a wonderful resource and has just been updated for the Summer Term. Sian Hardy who compiles the website includes this helpful calendar of events featuring awards, festivals, competitions, events and much more besides. Both the website and the calendar are easy to navigate and free to use. I would suggest that you sign up for the weekly newsletter if you haven’t already done so.

Finally, some book reviews that caught my eye recently…

The Bird Thief by Rachel Keating – this book published by Graffeg and illustrated by Naomi Bennet caught my attention due to the mention of a goldfinch in the story as I am fond of these little birds and the are delightful to watch in our garden on their rare visits. This lovely review on the FallenStar Stories blog is well worth a read and has put The Bird Thief on my wish list.

The Wood Where Magic Grows by Andy Shepherd & illustrated by Ellie Snowdon – this new book, is the first of a new series for readers aged about 7+, is already on my radar and I have a proof copy on my bookshelf next to me. Kate Heap’s lovely review has made me look forward to reading it even more. Published in July and one to watch out for.

The Blockbusters! by Frank Cottrell-Boyce, illustrated by Steve Lenton – as a long time fan of Frank Cottrell Boyce’s books I don’t generally need much persuading to read them. However if you are new to his work this great review by Veronica Price of his latest title will no doubt convert you! “This author has a unique talent for combining jokes, wisdom, and human relationships with a warmth and kindness that bring a smile to your face, new ideas to your brain and a glow to your heart.”

That’s everything for this month. I did warn you that it was rather long! I do hope that something included here has caught your eye and proved helpful. Wishing everyone a happy Easter and if you are on a break that you enjoy some relaxing time with family and friends. Reading Matters should be back some time after the Easter school holidays all being well.