A Christmas Eve/Day poem for the little ones in your life!

One last #Christmas reading recommendation. Our final Book of the Week 2025 is A WINTER'S MORNING by Angélique Léone illustrated by Grégoire Solotareff, published by @postwavebooks.bsky.social , 'tender, never sentimental, deeply moving'. #KidLit booksforkeeps.co.uk/review/a-win...

For the #PoetryByHeart Festive Showcase today, enjoy a special recitation of 'Father Christmas sent me to the Moon' by @domconlon.bsky.social, and see what twist you can put on the poem by speaking it! 🌙 ❄️ Dom also offers tips for writing your own poem 🖋️ poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/father...

New day, new poetry window to open on the #PoetryByHeart advent calendar! Today's poem is the gentle 'Snowflake Song' by James Carter, which sees a snowflake tumble in 'downward spirals' as night falls ❄️ Head to our website to explore the poem ❤️ poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/snowfl...

Another #Christmas present from us to you! @nicolettejones.bsky.social interviews Jamila Gavin about her #nerobookawards shortlisted MY SOUL A SHINING TREE: it has musical prose and historical facts about a hero who won the Victoria Cross. #KidLitUK @farshorebooks.bsky.social tinyurl.com/y5ry8d8f

I have admired Struan's writing since Orphans of the Tide, which of course won the #BranfordBoaseAward and Dragonborn is 🔥🔥🔥

With his talent for epic adventure and love of highly visual scenes and settings, Struan Murray seems to have been born to write about dragons. Now DRAGONBORN is shortlisted for the #NeroBookAwards. Find out why it's so hot @puffinbooksuk.bsky.social #KidLitUK 🐲 🔥https://tinyurl.com/42c3wemt

It took a little while…but we finally found some book titles whose covers live up to the very pink sparkle of our offices’ Christmas Tree. (Books by Flavia Z. Drago, Anna McQuinn & Rosalind Beardshaw and Viola Wang) #KidLitUK

Day 18 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar quiz. Two children’s book characters whose name begins with S. Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS.

Get on over to our Insta grid to see the out-takes from our interview with @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social for @booksforkeeps.bsky.social And read the bits that *did* make the cut at: booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/peop... #KidLitUK

This year, we paid out an incredible £47.5 million to our members, the highest ever amount in a single year! We hope to keep up our momentum in 2026. #ALCSAdvent 🎁

Our festive elves have been busy preparing #PoetryByHeart competition kits! New poem posters, calendars, poetry booklets and more will be hitting school letterboxes 📮📦✨ Have a look at this video where you can see Ms Vos and her colleagues from Darrick Wood School open our secondary poetry pack!

Open up the window for today's #PoetryByHeart Festive Showcase advent calendar and you'll find the funny festive poem 'Just Doing my Job' by Clare Bevan ⚔️ ✨ 🎄 Enjoy the humour and see if you can bring out the comic punchline in your performance of this poem! poetrybyheart.org.uk/poems/just-d...

Mike Farren reviews Wonder by Chris Emery in the latest issue of The High Window

Not long until the big day! Still got gifts to buy? We can help with that 🎄 Looking forward to having time to catch up with the best new interviews with children's authors? Ditto. And it's all summarised in our latest newsletter. 🎁 #KidLitUK mailchi.mp/booksforkeep...

Day 15 of #ALCSAdvent🎁. We had a busy summer attending many events that celebrated amazing authors, including the Branford Boase Award! We're proud to sponsor this award for outstanding debut novels for children and young people, that recognises both author and editor.

ICYMI in our latest issue: this year’s stand out new books, recommended by a panel of experts including Books for Keeps reviewers and writers. #KidLitUK booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/book...

Was having coffee with my brilliant friend Joy Whitby today who revealed that in 1965 she won a SEFTA (TV BAFTA) for creating Playschool, alongside wins for Peter Watkins for Culloden, who became a friend,& Peter Cook& Dudley Moore. And they all had a fab night. The End www.bafta.org/awards/telev...

@walkerbooksuk.bsky.social @otterbarrybooks.bsky.social @puffinbooksuk.bsky.social @bloomsburybooksuk.bsky.social @hachettechildrens.bsky.social

Once again, the #BfK elves have been sorting through Christmas deliveries on behalf of our readers to pick out the year’s best books for stockings.Don't go shopping without our #Christmasgifts guide🎄 🎁 booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/the-...

Day 12 of the #NewIllustrationOfTheDay #AdventCalendar. Characters whose name begins with L. A family name for all the characters in the first picture and the child in the second. Your task: name the ILLUSTRATORS. Answers to the whole quiz will be posted on the afternoon of December 24th.

"I’m not very good at writing to trends…I can only write about thing I care about." NEW #BfK interview: Fen Coles @letterboxlibrary.bsky.social talks to Patrice Lawrence about PEOPLE LIKE STARS shortlisted #NeroBookAwards @scholasticuk.bsky.social #KidLitUK booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/peop...

Day 8 of the #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar quiz. Two well-known children's book characters beginning with H. Your task: name today's two ILLUSTRATORS. Have fun.

Inclusive Books for Children @ibc-reads.bsky.social has announced the longlist for its 2026 Awards, recognising outstanding inclusive books for young readers, published in the UK. #KidLitUK Check them out and add them to your shopping list! 🎁🎄 booksforkeeps.co.uk/inclusive-bo...

The #PoetryByHeart festive elves have been busy packing up our competition packs to send out to schools. That's over 2,000 packs bursting with resources! If you haven't registered for our 2026 competition, there's still time ❤️ Head over to our website for more - poetrybyheart.org.uk/register

What an amazing #poetry performance! 👏👏👏

Day 6 #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. Two children's book characters beginning with F (the second is the child not the dog, though their names are a pair). Your task: name today's two ILLUSTRATORS, who have similar surnames.

A winter story with a difference, this story of change and growth will be enjoyed by readers whatever their own family backgrounds, and it will encourage little green fingers too. Our new Book of the Week @greystonebooks.bsky.social #KidLitUK #BookSky booksforkeeps.co.uk/review/brown...

'Funny books bring joy. Simple as that.' @michaelrosenyes.bsky.social ky.social The winners of the Lollies 2025 have been announced - officially the funniest books for kids #KidLitUK @scholasticuk.bsky.social cuk.bsky.social 🎉 booksforkeeps.co.uk/stephen-mang...

Day 4 #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. Two children's book characters beginning with D. Both loved, though one of them is inanimate. Your task today: name the two connected ILLUSTRATORS. Enjoy the pictures.

'I like working in black and white, it gets straight to the point. The light reveals, the darkness conceals, and by working from effectively a black canvas, I could slowly illuminate the important elements and hide the rest.' If you're interested in #illustration this is a must-read.

We feel inspired to share Jim Kay's Windows into Illustration feature #BfK 195 in which he describes the process of illustrating A MONSTER CALLS #illustration #kidlit @patricknessbooks.bsky.social @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/u...

Honoured to receive a proof copy of PIPER AT THE GATES OF DUSK, book 1 in @patricknessbooks.bsky.social new trilogy, which returns to the CHAOS WALKING universe (Yes!). Coming April 26 @walkerbooksuk.bsky.social. Glorious too that Jim Kay, co-creator A MONSTER CALLS, illus the endpapers. #KidLitUK

We've updated the Salt website – new layouts for the author directory, updated pages for careers, design and typography, events, book and magazine submissions, pretty much the entire site revised in some degree. www.saltpublishing.com #SaltPublishing #HouseMagazine #LitCommunity

Bonus link to a #BfK archive article (1986) about Noel Streatfeild written by one of her editors, Susan Dickinson. #KidLitUK

'This production makes the most of a novel that revelled in the business of performance. It celebrates its own art & artifice, & [...] invites the audience to revel in it too.' Ballet Shoes back at @nationaltheatre.org.uk BfK review by @nicolettejones.bsky.social booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/ball...

Day 2 #NewIllustrationoftheDay #adventcalendar. Two iconic children's book characters beginning with B. Your task: name the two ILLUSTRATORS. Have fun, and enjoy the pictures.

‘A stunning piece of historical fiction which combines meticulous research with a beautifully imagined plot.’ First in our series of interviews with the authors shortlisted for #NeroBookAwards, Joanne Owen talks to Jenny Pearson about SHRAPNEL BOYS #KidLitUK booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/hear...

"Wonder is the first of all passions" Descartes For #NationalIllustrationDay25 and #nonfictionNovember, Kate Winter writes about connecting readers with the past in her picture books incl THE CAVE EXPLORER @puffinbooksuk.bsky.social #KidLitUK booksforkeeps.co.uk/article/tell...

And I present to you the happiest tag to get behind TOMORROW: #BookFriday #KidLitUK

‘Beautifully transformative books’ recognised in the School Library Association’s annual celebration of information books. Congratulations to the winners and to all the young people who voted 👏 💐 @sla.org.uk booksforkeeps.co.uk/school-libra...

Some wonderful poems to learn by heart!

Bored of bubble-bath? Buy a Year of Poetry with a Poetry Archive membership and enjoy new monthly recordings. poetryarchive.org/support/

#NewIllustrationOfTheDay by Guy Parker-Rees from a new board book edition of Giraffes Can’t Dance: Jingle Bells, with text by Giles Andreae. Anthropomorphic drawing that looks casual but convincingly gives animals unlikely moves. Orchard Books. @hachetteuk.bsky.social @guyparkerrees.bsky.social

NEW: If you have *any* interest in the Nathan Gill story, you need to look at this. We’ve put all the dates into a timeline & it’s incredibly revealing. 1/ www.thenerve.news/p/nathan-gil...

⭐Discount Spotlight: Citizen Poet by Eavan Boland, edited by Jody Allen Randolph📘 Carcanet's monthly discount has launched! This month, enjoy 20% off a selection of books from our Lives and Letters collection by using the code LETTERS20 at our website checkout:⬇️ www.carcanet.co.uk/978180017170...

The new #BfK Book of the Week is ROAD TO TRUE NORTH by Sarah Holding #KidLit #BookSky booksforkeeps.co.uk/review/road-...

Congratulations to Jamila Gavin, Patrice Lawrence, Struan Murray and Jenny Pearson, shortlisted in the Children's Fiction category of the still new but already prestigious Nero Book Awards 🎉 👏 🎆 🎉 #KidLitUK #bookawards booksforkeeps.co.uk/nero-book-aw...

I Am Wishing Every Minute for Christmas also graces the cover of our new issue and don't miss the interview with Lauren Child by @nicolettejones.bsky.social #KidLitUK #BookSky booksforkeeps.co.uk/issue/bfk-27...

Good Morning! We’ve got wonderful news for you! Absolutely delighted that Horatio Clare’s We Came by Sea has been shortlisted for the 2025 #NeroBookAwrds. It’s a very impressive shortlist. The paperback is now at the printers and is available for pre order! @horatioclare.bsky.social #BookSky