In the Reading Corner

Naomi Gibson was born in 1988 and grew up in Cheshire, UK. Her childhood was spent with her nose in a book and her hands on a sketchpad, constantly in search of adventure and new worlds. Encouraged by her family to be creative, she developed a love for writing at a young age – something that never left her. She studied Art History at the University of Manchester. Whilst there, she met her husband,...

Swapna Haddow trained as a doctor, but after discovering she didn't like blood, decided on a career change and wrote her first book Dave Pigeon: How to Deal With Bad Cats and Keep (most of) Your Feathers, which won the Greenhouse Funny Prize. Dave Pigeon was also the winner of the North Somerset Teachers’ Book Award, Read Aloud category 2016, winner of Surrey Libraries’ Children’s Book Award...

Jeffrey Boakye is a writer and teacher originally from Brixton in south London, now living in Yorkshire with his family. He has a particular interest in issues surrounding education, race and popular culture. Jeffrey has taught English in secondary schools and sixth form colleges since 2007. In this episode, he talks to Nikki Gamble about his book Musical Truth: A Musical History of modern Black B...

Ross Montgomery is known for his inventive stories and reflective picturebooks. Now he brings us something entirely different, a rhyming countdown book featuring hairy monsters and some very tasty teachers. The result is a playful book that lends itself to shared reading and enactment with its 'Bear Hunt' style environments for children to creep, squelch and stomp through. About Ten Deli...

Dirk Reinhardt, born in 1963, studied German and history before becoming a freelance journalist and starting to write books for children and young adults. In this episode, he talks with Nikki Gamble about the background to his novel the Edelweiss Pirates and his reasons for writing it. The novel's translator Rachel Ward assists with interpretation. About Edelweiss Pirates When sixteen-year-ol...

Linda Newbery is a Costa Award-winning author for her novel Set in Stone , a mystery in the Vein of Wilkie Collins The Woman in White. She is highly regarded for her fiction for both junior and teenage readers. Now Linda has written her first non-fiction book, This Book is Cruelty-Free: Animals and Us . Linda's first novel was concerned with animal rights and hunting. She has long been a camp...

Struan Murray author of The Orphans of the Tide and Shipwreck Island is the joint recipient of the Branford Boase award, with editor Ben Horslen. The Branford Boase is given for the most outstanding children's debut of the year and recognises the writer and the important role played by the editor in the process of steering a debut book to publication. Struan is Scottish, born and brought up i...

Alom Shaha was born in Bangladesh but grew up in London. A parent, teacher, science writer, and filmmaker, he has spent most of his professional life trying to share his passion for science and education with the public. Alom has produced, directed, and appeared in a number of television programmes for broadcasters such as the BBC, and has received fellowships from the National Endowment for Scien...

Michelle Paver is a British novelist who was born in Malawi where she lived until she was three years old. Her mother was Belgian and her father was South African. Michelle was educated at Wimbledon High School and went on to read biochemistry at Lady Margaret Hall, University of Oxford, After University she became a partner in a City of London law firm. Her first children's novel, Wolf Broth...

Peter Bently is a prolific author of rhyming picture books for children. These include   The Great Dog Bottom Swap (with Mei Matsuoka ), Meet the Parents (with Sara Ogilvie ), The Shark in the Dark (with Ben Cort ) and Potion Commotion (with Sernur Isik ). Cats Ahoy! , his first picture book with Jim Field, won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2011 ] and King Jack and the Dragon (with Helen Oxenbury ) w...

Sally Gardner and Lydia Corry are the creative partnership behind the fabulous Tindims stories, a series that is reminiscent of The Borrowers but with a new 21st Century awareness.  The Tindims are tiny people who sail the seas on their floating island, repurposing the rubbish that other people leave behind. Sally and Lydia are mother and daughter, and their beach walks and talks have been a perfe...

Pippa Curnick has established herself as a picturebook talent and now added her creative magic to a new illustrated fiction series for newly independent readers. Indigo Wilde and the Creatures of Jellybean Crescent has a touch of Pippi Longstocking, a hint of Fungus the Bogeyman in a story that is wholly from Pippa's expansive imagination.  The book is beautifully produced with illustrations...

Polly Ho-Yen's debut book, The Boy in The Tower , was an instant success. The middle-grade science fiction story about strange spores that affected concrete and led to the collapse of buildings was full of nail-biting jeopardy but plenty of heart too. Since then Polly has written several middle-grade novels, including where Monsters Lie and Fly me Home. as well as books for education series a...

Maise Chan is a British Chinese author, born in Birmingham and now living in Glasgow. She runs the Bubble Tea Writers Network, a support group that she set up to encourage writers of East and South-East Asian descent. She also founded the Glasgow Children's Writers Network and is a mentor for Leila Rasheed's Megaphone Writer Development project. Tiger Warriors is a new series from Maisie...

After talking to Nicola Morgan about strategies and techniques for developing resilience, I decided to try belly breathing. It's great for focus and concentration and deflects from the anxieties that might be taking too much brain space. I picked up lots of other interesting tips too and discovered why Nicola was motivated to write this book. Nicola is no stranger to writing about the teenage...

Historian, broadcaster and writer, Dominic Sandbrook, talks about his collections of historical stories for children.  How do you make history engaging for action-loving children, what is the difference between writing true stories and historical fiction and why writing for children is so much more demanding than writing for adults. Adventures in Time T ake a journey to a vanished world with the A...

David Ouimet is an American artist, author, and musician. Early illustration work includes album jackets for his rock group Motherheadbug. He has also illustrated stories notably for Robert D San Souci and Nacy Etchmendy. Since then he has worked as a street artist in New York and internationally. His debut children's book which he both wrote and illustrated, I Go Quiet was published to great...

A M Howell is the author of The Garden of Lost Secrets and The House of  One Hundred Clocks, historical mysteries set in and around real places in East Anglia. Her third book The Mystery of the Night Watchers , continues this theme. A story set during the Edwardian period in her home town of Bury St Edmunds during a spectacular appearance of Halley's Comet. Anne-Marie joined me In The Reading...

Pooja Puri's  A Dinosaur Ate My Sister was selected as the first book choice for Marcus Rashford's Book Club.  A percentage of sales will be donated to the charity Magic Breakfast. Marcus and Pooja are both committed to ensuring children have the fuel to give them energy and help them learn through the day, as well as books to engage and delight. Pooja joined me In the Reading Corner to...

Marcia Williams is well known for her wonderful retellings of best-loved stories in her inimitable comic book style which invite reading and rereading. King Arthur, Robin Hood, Shakespeare, Chaucer and the myths and legends of Greece and Egypt have been given her special treatment. She has also written and illustrated two exceptional books in diary/scrapbook format. Archie's War and My Secret...

Lauren St John is well-known for her thrilling mystery series, The White Giraffe series , Laura Marlin Mysteries and Wolfe and Lamb .  Lauren's books are infused with an adventurous spirit so I was delighted to invite her to be my guest for this episode of In The Reading Corner to talk about her latest book Wave Riders . About Wave Riders A storm is coming. What will it take to survive? Twins...

Jenny Pearson's first book The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates was published to great acclaim and quickly became a favourite with primary teachers for its closely observed, hilarious but compassionate portrayal of children.  Jenny is a primary teacher herself and it's clear that she loves both parts of her working life and that they feed each other. A second book The Incredible...

Ewa Jozefkowicz's latest book is simply delicious. The Cooking Club Detectives covers some serious territory such as food poverty and adult depression, but it deals with the subjects lightly in a story full of hope, where children have agency and take positive action.  And as you will gather from the title, there's a mystery to be solved too. I invited Ewa In The Reading Corner to help m...

Hilary McKay is one of the best-loved children's novelists writing today. She has a talent for making the ordinary beautiful and extraordinary.  Her depiction of families is warm and compassionate even when circumstances are challenging. I invited Hilary into the Reading Corner to talk about The Swallows' Flight, the sequel to Skylarks War. About The Swallows' Flight A moving WWII s...

Susie has been a teacher, a tour guide, a typist, a workshop facilitator, a PA and a painter. She formerly wrote and directed TV programmes for children at the BBC and Channel 4, for which she won a BAFTA Award.  The Three Impossibles is Susie's second novel for children aged 8+. It is an original story steeped in fairy tales, told in the classic storytelling voice. Susie joined me In The Rea...