Poet, playwright and author Joseph Coelho has been named the new Waterstones children's laureate, and will look to celebrate the power of poetry during his two-year tenure. Read more
Charlie and Lola creator Lauren Child is calling for attitudes towards children's books to change, criticising the "lazy" assumption that "creating work with children in mind is easier or less demanding". Read more
All of the UK's children's laureates, including Cressida Cowell, Quentin Blake, Malorie Blackman and Michael Rosen, are uniting to call for the government to dedicate £100m a year to revitalising "deteriorating" primary school libraries across the country, amid fears that literacy levels have dropped severely during the pandemic. Read more
Lauren Child thinks children's book publishing still gets a bad deal. It's one of the reasons the best-selling author-illustrator and current Children's Laureate - her tenure ends this year - is so happy to be a judge for this year Oscar's Book Prize. "There's still a lot of snootiness about children's books. Just look at the teeny-weeny percentage that get reviewed compared to adults. Read more
Earlier this month, outgoing Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman handed the medal of office to her successor, Chris Riddell. She reflects on her two years in the role in conversation with ALCS News.
As I speak to the illustrator, writer and political cartoonist Chris Riddell - who has just been appointed the ninth Waterstones Children's Laureate - he is drawing, on a press release, a picture of himself drawing on a press release. Read more
Malorie Blackman has urged the next children's laureate to speak their mind, despite describing her "surprise" at the "vitriolic reaction" she had received to some of her own campaigns. Read more
Several notable authors were walking the aisles of the Bologna Book Fair, from newcomers to the children's book world like bestselling adult author Sophie Kinsella to veterans like Malorie Blackman, the current U.K. Children's Laureate, whose next book for children will be her 61st. Read more
Children's laureate Malorie Blackman has vowed that "hell will freeze over before I let racists and haters silence me" after facing an outpouring of racist abuse following her call for more diversity in children's books. Read more
'I'm very reassuringly honest. It's a job as well as a calling. It's my living - I'm the chief breadwinner in my house. My husband is retired, he supported me through the two decades while I wasn't making enough to live on, and was doing all kinds of things to do with writing to survive - judging competitions, running workshops, appraising manuscripts.
‘My settings of Europe and English visitors weren't really doing it for them, so we decided Scotland would be good. I thought an island would be great, because it's a small community, and it's an opportunity for my main character to get away from it all. The team at HarperCollins have been so supportive and enthusiastic... Read more
For the past five years or so, I've read books on my phone. The practice started innocently enough. I write book reviews from time to time, and so publishers sometimes send me upcoming titles that fall roughly within my interests. Read more
The Guardian calls Irish-Indian poet Nikita Gill "Britain's most-followed poet on social media"-she has 780,000 Instagram followers and 180,000 TikTok followers, and her Instapoetry has been reshared by the likes of Khloe Kardashian, Alanis Morissette, and Sam Smith-and she has published seven volumes of poetry and two novels in the U.K. But she is far less known on this side of the pond. Read more
Nikkolas Smith knows a thing or two about book bans. The illustrator has created five picture books over the last three years-four of which have been yanked off library shelves. There's I am Ruby Bridges, about the civil rights icon; That Flag about the confederate flag; Born on the Water, which explores slavery; and The Artivist which features a child supporting trans kids.
Simon & Schuster has acquired the largest Dutch publishing group Veen Bosch & Keuning, including all of its publishers in the Netherlands and Belgium, as well as sister companies Thinium and Bookchoice.
The Publishers Association (PA) has criticised the government's response to a House of Lords report on AI, saying that it has failed to make "any tangible commitments to protect the creative industries against mass copyright infringement".
'It is a delicious thing to write, to be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating. Today, for instance, as man and woman, both lover and mistress, I rode in a forest on autumn afternoon under the yellow leaves, and I was also the horses, the leaves, the wind, the words my people uttered, even the red sun that made them almost close their love-drowned eyes. Read more
'I'm very reassuringly honest'
‘My settings of Europe and English visitors weren't really doing it for them, so we decided Scotland would be good. I thought an island would be great, because it's a small community, and it's an opportunity for my main character to get away from it all. The team at HarperCollins have been so supportive and enthusiastic... Read more