We Love Books

Stuck for ways to keep up with the wonderful world of kids books during the pandemic? Niamh chats to writers Sarah Webb and Eve McDonnell about Wonderfest, an online festival kids can attend November 20th-22nd from the comfort of their own home!

Children from all across the country wrote fantastic stories for our We Love Books writing competition and now it's time to hear from our winners - they tell us what they wrote about and share their top writing tips. You'll be able to hear the winning stories on forthcoming episodes.

Niamh drops in on a creative writing club for kids led by award-winning author Sarah Webb and finds out what makes snow happy and what makes rain sad, CBI Book Doctor Anne has excellent reading recommendations for the adventurous at heart and we've got a story that'll scare the socks off you written by 12-year-old Sean!

Dream team meteorologist Joanna Donnelly and illustrator Fuchsia MacAree chat about creating their award-winning The Great Weather Book, plus we've got all the usual goods including stories, reviews and a trip to CBI Book Doctor Anne's clinic of riveting reading recommendations.

Kelly McCaughrain chats about her multi-award-winning debut novel Flying Tips for Flightless Birds, CBI Book Doctor Anne has top reading recommendations, we've got stories, reviews and more!

Holly Rivers chats to Niamh all about her book Demelza and the Spectre Detectors and what it was like growing up inside an actual book, almost, as an actress on the original Worst Witch series, plus we've got reviews, stories, reading recommendations and more!

Pádraig Kenny is our featured author, chatting about the secret to writing a book really, really fast and why he wants to make you cry (in a good way!), CBI Book Doctor Anne has some classic recommendations, we've got reviews, stories and more!

How to Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell chats about her writing process and her new book in the Wizards of Once series, Knock Three Times, CBI Book Doctor Anne has excellent reading recommendations for kids who love illustrated books and we've got reviews, stories and more - essential listening for bookworms everywhere!

The results are in for the We Love Books writing competition! In this mini episode we find out what the judges were looking for in a winning story, what their top tips are for entering a creative writing competition and, of course, who our winners are!

The Maker of Monsters author Lorraine Gregory chats to Niamh about how a good hero needs a good villain, plus we've got reviews, stories and top reading recommendations from CBI Book Doctor Anne.

Helena Duggan is our featured author this week, uncovering the spooky side of Kilkenny in her 'Perfect' trilogy. We've got stories, reviews and top recommendations from Book Doctor Anne.

Shane Hegarty is our featured author in this week's episode. You'll know him from his Darkmouth series and most recently for Boot, which is the 2020 Citywide Reading for Children choice. We check in with Book Doctor Anne for some excellent reading recommendations and we've got the usual bumper helping of stories and reviews.

Niamh chats to author and illustrator Chris Judge about the latest adventures of The Beast and what happens when he finds an egg on his doorstep, plus we've got reviews, stories and a visit from Book Doctor Anne with recommendations for great reads.

On today's mini ep, the students of the Bradley Theatre School share the poems they have written for an online poetry festival run by teacher Sarah - plenty of inspiration to get you scribbling at home!

Green-fingered mother-daughter duo Esther Coombs and Tinneke Harvey tell Niamh about speedy snails, two-headed pumpkins and how a school gardening club led to their new book, Plant, Sow, Make and Grow, plus reviews, stories and more!

Author Vashti Hardy tells us about the fantastical worlds she writes about and the supernatural experiences she had as a child - spooky! Plus writing tips, reviews and more.

Author and illustrator Laura Ellen Anderson chats to Niamh about how to make your very own pumpkin friend, how best to organize rainbow pants and more! Plus writing tips, stories and reviews.

Niamh chats to 6-year-old Max Kennedy who has published his very own book and his 5-year-old sister Zoe, his expert saleswoman! A fantastic example of how you can get creative from your own home.

Our own in-house writer extraordinaire Dave Rudden has only gone and given us an interview! He spills the ancient secrets of that most mysterious of creatures, the author (spoiler alert, they're allowed to wear pjs all day if they like - nice!)

Niamh is joined by a roly-poly flying pony named Kevin and his friends, Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre to chat about what it's like writing a book with your friend - spoiler alert, it's great fun! We've got another fab writing tip from Dave Rudden and loads more!

Niamh chats to writer and illustrator Alex T Smith about books, the colour pink and his childhood ambition to be a rabbit! (As well as loads of other stuff, seriously we really do jam-pack these episodes...)

The magical James Nicol casts a spell in the We Love Books HQ telling us all about the adventures of Arianwyn Gribble!

X Factor host Dermot O'Leary has many talents, one of them is writing kids books! He chats to Niamh about the third book in his Toto the Ninja Cat series, we've got World Book Day Shenanigans, stories, reviews and a whole load more!

It's our official launch party! Writer Juliette Saumande and illustrator Tarsila Krüse lead children through a treasure hunt at Coolock Library with some weird and wonderful results. Kids get reading, writing and reviewing and we've got a top 2 minute writing tip from author Dave Rudden to get you scribbling.

Niamh chats to author Onjali Rauf about how she turned her experiences working in refugee camps into her award-winni ng book The Boy at the Back of the Class. There's a top writing tip from author extraordinaire Dave Rudden, reviews, story time and more!