Tag Archives: childrens_books

Blog Tour: Please Don’t Read the Footnotes Please by Rob Walton illustrated by Reena Makwana

Humour is quite often the ‘hook’ that can draw children into reading. Equally many children are overwhelmed by the length of some novels and find collections of short stories or novellas more appealing. Former teacher Rob Walton has created something … Continue reading

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Interactive Books for Babies and Toddlers

A recent report said that children in this country – post-pandemic, post austerity – are facing a “happiness recession”. I don’t think books are the answer but I do think that encountering books early in life, through the attention of someone … Continue reading

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2025 Federation of Children’s Book Groups: Children’s Book Award Blog Tour

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour to mark the announcement of the shortlist for the Federation of Children’s Book Groups (FCBG) Children’s Book Award. The Children’s Book Award is the only national award for children’s books that is … Continue reading

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The Beck by Anthony McGowan: A Review

There is a new book published this week from a winning combination of author and publisher that I have been looking forward to reading for a while. In 2020 Anthony McGowan won the Carnegie Award for Lark, the final book … Continue reading

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Reading Matters – children’s book news

Welcome to this month’s round up of what has been happening in the world of children’s books. February saw the announcement of the longlists for the Carnegie Medals for Writing and Illustration and of this year’s Read for Empathy Collections. … Continue reading

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2025 Read for Empathy Collection Launch

Today Empathy Lab launches the 2025 Read for Empathy collection of books for 3-16-year-olds, alongside calling for empathy and emotional skills to be prioritised. Now in its 9th year, this unique list of 70 titles for children and young people aged … Continue reading

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Pick of the New Children’s Books for February

An animal whodunit for new readers, entertaining little witches on a mission, dragons and danger, exploring life on the Moon and a ghostly visitor in the fog feature in my selection of books for children this month. Gruff Justice by … Continue reading

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Reading Matters – Children’s Book News

Hello and welcome to this month’s round up of what has been happening in the world of children’s books. With January behind us many are looking forward to discovering what February holds in the way of new books to enjoy. … Continue reading

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Blog Tour: All Brains Are Wonderful written by Scott Evans, illustrated by The Boy Fitz Hammond with Expert Consultant Dr. Rachel Williams

B Small Publishing have for some time been one of my favourite publishers. As a small indpendent publisher they specialise in creative, educational titles with high child appeal and their information books encourage their readers to discover new things. When … Continue reading

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Engaging Books for Independent Young Readers

When children first show an indication that they are ready to progress on to slightly longer independent reads they can still find pages of dense text a little daunting. Thankfully there has been a growth in highly illustrated quality fiction … Continue reading

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