Welcome back to the new school year – we hope you had a great summer. September always feels the time for fresh starts and we are back after a bit of summer break. We have an interview with Dean Atta about his picture book, Auntie’s Bangles  (illustrated by Alea Marley)- a joyous take on loss […]

Fidan Meikle is a multi-award-winning Azerbaijani-British writer, linguist and translator. We talk with her about her debut middle-grade novel, My Name Is Samim, which is a powerful novel that follows Samim, a thirteen-year-old boy, as he flees war-torn Afghanistan for a new life in the UK.  It highlights the experiences of young refugees and asylum-seekers,

In this episode we have a feast of middle grade books! We talk first to Kristina Rahim author of the very popular The Doughnut Club, about her second book Max and Ella Stuck Together.  Max has had a tough year starting secondary school. He has been bullied about having two mums and has lost his

We talk with author Clare Pollard about her new middle grade book The Othernauts. Based on the story of Jason and the Argonauts, we follow Phoebe who is bored of life on the island where she lives and is desperate to escape. When a ship with Jason and the Argonauts comes into the harbour she

We talk to the chair of judges and the 2025 winner of The Klaus Flugge Prize for Illustration, Emma Farrarons. Emma won the prize in 2025 which is for the year’s most exciting newcomers to children’s picture book illustration. This year she is back as the chair of judges alongside illustrator Rob Biddulph, illustrator and

We talk to Bex Hughes about the upcoming Canterbury Children’s Literature Festival which is on the 9th – 12th of July and also about Book Shop Crawl UK which hosts book shop crawls in cities around the UK. You can find out more about all the exciting events on at the Canterbury Children’s Literature Festival

In September 2026 all UK Secondary Schools will receive two copies of the book Scientists Making a Difference by Dr Shini Somara together with a pack of resources. This is a collaboration between publishers What on Earth!, the Gatsby Foundation and Imperial. We talk to teacher Jennifer Marchant who created the school resources to discuss

Join us as we talk to lead curators Alison Bailey and Laura Walker, of the British Library’s Fairy Tales Exhibition. This interactive and child friendly exhibit is on until 23 August 2026 and covers many familiar tales as well as lesser known stories.  They have brought together interactive displays, theatrical design, story sharing spaces, costumes

Join us talking to Mayo Agard-Olubo about his debut picture book, Kid Rex to the Rescue, illustrated by Diane Ewen. Max’s imagination transforms him into the superhero Kid Rex, and he’s ready to use his dinosaur powers to battle robots, dragons and even the evil king dust bunny. A fun bedtime story and definitely one

Following on from episode 48 when we went through the Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist together with expert Carnegie followers Alison Jewitt and Amy McKay, in this episode we go through the Carnegie Medal for Illustration shortlist and make some more ill fated predictions for the winners. Alison Jewitt is an English teacher at the