For many young readers, especially boys, books that make you laugh are the doorway into reading. The current generation are chuckling their way through the highly comic ‘Mr. Gum’ series by Andy Stanton. In this interview with Pam Dowson, this much acclaimed author who has received the Blue Peter, Red House and Roald Dahl funny…
Lauren St John was born in Gatooma, Rhodesia, now Kadoma, Zimbabwe. At the age of eleven she and her family moved to Rainbow’s End farm in Gadzema, which later became the subject of her memoir, Rainbow’s End. She is the author of the multi award-winning children’s series, The White Giraffe, Dolphin Song, The Last Leopard and The Elephant’s Tale. Dead Man’s Cove,…
Ali Sparkes is a British children’s author. Her books include The Shapeshifter series, Out of this World, Unleashed, Dark Summer, Frozen in Time, Wishful Thinking, the Monster Makers series, and S.W.I.T.C.H. When you start to write a book, do you know how it will end? Sometimes I haven’t the faintest idea. Sometimes I’ve got a…
Steve Skidmore and his writing partner Steve Barlow are known collectively as ‘the Two Steves’. The 2 Steves met over twenty years ago when they were both teaching in Nottingham. Since then they have written over 150 books together. They have also acted as series editors on numerous reading programmes for several major publishing houses. In…
Nicky Singer was born in 1956 and has worked in publishing, the arts and television. She began her writing career at the age of 15, with lyrics for a cantata Jonah and the Whale, and has since written four adult novels. Feather Boy, Nicky’s first novel for the younger market, won the Blue Peter Book…
Darren Shan’s first children’s book, Cirque du Freak, which he’d written as a fun side-project, was published in January 2000. The first book in a series titled The Saga of Darren Shan (or Cirque du Freak, as it’s known in America), it attracted rave reviews and an ever-growing army of fans hungry to learn more about vampires which were quite…
Alongside a 16 year career in publishing Marcus Sedgwick established himself as a widely-admired writer of YA fiction; he is the winner of many prizes, most notably the Branford-Boase Award for a debut novel (Floodland), and the Booktrust Teenage Prize (My Swordhand is Singing). His books have been shortlisted for over thirty other awards, including…
After teaching at various institutions in Britain, the United States, the Middle East and Sri Lanka, Stewart Ross became a full-time writer some 23 years ago. With over 250 published titles to his credit, he is now one of Britain’s most popular and versatile authors. As well as prize-winning books for children, both fiction and…
Michael Rosen is one of the best known figures in the children’s book world and the British arts scene. He has written numerous award-winning poetry books, non-fiction and picture books. He is also a journalist, broadcaster, performer, who visits schools in the UK and abroad with his one-man show. He was Children’s Laureate from 2007-9,…