Finishing a long running series is a tricky thing. I go in search of the perfect ending to a popular series, looking at finales by Philip Pullman, C.S. Lewis, Tove Jansson and SF Said. What are your favourite (and least favourite) concluding chapters #KidLitUK? tygertale.com/2026/04/18/t...

I highly recommend this drama by @paulmagrs.bsky.social which puts a magical spin on a true story about an encounter with David Bowie in the 1980s: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Pick up a Puffin with 25% off (along with everything else) in the #TygertaleVintage January sale. www.etsy.com/uk/shop/tyge... #ukkidlit #booksky

And if you're looking for new children's books, @tygertale.bsky.social has just updated his crowd-sourced list of the Best Children's Books of the 21st Century. It's a wonderful list that shows this really is a golden age - just have a look! tygertale.com/2025/11/28/t...

When there’s an article about reading, the author often focuses on the C20th as if they too don’t understand the link between not reading and not feeling represented. Thankfully, @tygertale.bsky.social put this list together Tell me what you agree/disagree with tygertale.com/2025/11/28/t...

I'm looking for the best children's books of the 21st century. There are so many amazing graphic novels, fantasy, historical, picture books, contemporary, non-fiction and funny books that didn't make my original crowd sourced list - please tell me yours! tygertale.com/2019/10/09/t... #kidlituk

Sad to hear about the passing of Rosemary Sandberg, co-founder of the Puffin Club with Kaye Webb and later editor of Collins' rival to Puffin, Lions and Picture Lions. I interviewed Rosemary about her fascinating career in 2017, you can read the piece here: tygertale.com/2017/03/28/r...

The pressure to publish more and faster was one of the most frustrating things about working in publishing. If I could say ONE thing to the publishing industry about how to make things better, it would be this: do not publish anything you are not going to support well with marketing.

Yes please

A lovely illustration ❤️

‘Children’s writing is by far the work I find hardest, because it has its own urgent imperatives, and its own laws, and those laws are both the laws of writing and the laws of childhood: laws that must be taken seriously.’ Katherine Rundell: www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Really interesting reading. I was shocked by how this story was ignored last year (and the story itself, obvs).

Months ago, I meant to send a list of books to @alastaircampbell2.bsky.social @restispolitics.bsky.social and @sueatkins.bsky.social for children and teens that look overtly or otherwise at politics and regimes. I lost that list, so am curating recs that inform + champion critical thinking. Pls add.

Pick up a Picture Puffin with 25% off (along with everything else) in the #TygertaleVintage January sale. tygertale.etsy.com

Sniffup! I'm having a little January sale in the #TygertaleVintage children's bookshop. 25% off everything (including hundreds of Puffin books) until Monday. Spotera! tygertale.etsy.com

Entering my black and white era

Sniffup! I'm having a little January sale in the #TygertaleVintage children's bookshop. 25% off everything (including hundreds of Puffin books) until Monday. Spotera! tygertale.etsy.com

Some very happy news! Delighted that my children’s novel THE UNTAMEABLES, illustrated by @reenamakwana.bsky.social has been long listed for the Branford Boase Award, especially as it also recognises editor extraordinaire Emma Dai’an Wright @theemmapress.bsky.social

My BSU MA for Writing for Young People 2024 cohort revealed our cover for our Inkland Anthology. Cover art and design is by illustrator Ellie Sandall and is utterly gorgeous 🤩 More on our IG. #MAWfYP #MAWYP #ukkidlit #kidlituk

The Times children's book of the week is... 'People Like Stars' by Patrice Lawrence. A mystery that respects the emotional intelligence of teenage boys. @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social www.thetimes.com/article/1602...

Actual pro tip: the best way to break into any creative profession is by helping to support and advance other creators. Your peers are not your adversaries. They are your support group.

@leafjournal.bsky.social Hi, nice to see you on here. I've been enjoying the Leaf archives lately! In a quest to read more analysis on children's books (beyond market stuff, about the actual nuts and bolts of the texts)

Shot for The Guardian Weekend, to accompany Kathy Acker’s interview with the girls, which is basically just a whirlwind of tangents. At one point Geri starts talking about The Killing Fields for some reason. www.theguardian.com/music/2018/f...

Love this book, even more than the Dark is Rising

I'm keen to read more in-depth articles on children's books and I'd love your recommendations - there are sites like Leaf and School Library Journal that I've found great stuff on but there's so much. I'm particularly interested in fantasy, comedy, middle grade/8-12 books (any combo) #KidLitUK

"The snow lay thin and apologetic over the world… All the broad sky was grey, full of more snow that refused to fall." The Dark is Rising opens on December 21st, the shortest day. Our hero Will Stanton is waiting for his eleventh birthday and the snow that will just not fall.

LOVED this MG book from @lawrencepatrice.bsky.social Modern mystery of family secrets, told from 3 points of view. It's beautiful writing & I completely devoured it. The 3 voices are so strong and each is properly distinctive. I'm certain it will be on all the best lists next year! 👏👏🌟

One day Mog woke up and nothing was right in her house. Christmas arrives in the Thomas household, bringing with it jolly uncles, aunts on tippy-toe and a walking tree. Judith Kerr's Mog's Christmas, available in the #TygertaleVintage bookshop. tygertale.etsy.com/listing/1245... #TygertaleAdvent

There’s an antiques emporium in Norwich of such unfathomable strangeness every visit produces fresh gasps of bewilderment and terror. Recent finds: 1. Mounted photo print of depressed steam train driver (£1)

A Christmas Treasury - a beautiful Tomie dePaola collection of stories, poems, carols (including music), and even a play celebrating the diversity of Christmas traditions around the world. #TygertaleAdvent Find a copy in the #tygertalevintage children's bookshop tygertale.etsy.com/listing/1829...

What Ron Grainer's theme tune for Doctor Who might have sounded like if not for Delia Derbyshire. www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1SZ...

The Snow Queen. Exquisite adaptation of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, retold by Naomi Lewis and illustrated by Errol Le Cain. #TygertaleAdvent 1988 Picture Puffins edition for sale in the #TygertaleVintage children's bookshop tygertale.etsy.com/listing/1133...

The Snow Day by Komako Sakai is a rare winter themed picture book set in an urban environment, the most famous example of which is Ezra Jack Keats’s similarly titled The Snowy Day. 1/5 #TygertaleAdvent

Sniffup! Raymond Briggs was good friends with the legendary Puffin Books editor Kaye Webb. Despite his reputation for being more grumpy than Father Christmas he found himself sucked into Kaye’s world of Puffin Club outings and general merriment 1/2 #TygertaleAdvent

Eloise at Christmastime by Kay Thompson and illustrated by Hilary Knight. The wild young resident of the Plaza hotel takes a break from terrorising staff and guests to share a tender moment with her absolutely best friend Nanny, looking out over snow bound Central Park.

Great cover

Starting on Christmas Eve, a week of Kenny Everett celebrations of 4 Extra. Repeated documentaries (the BBC Local Radio Years and Happy Birthday, Maurice Cole) and excitingly, 3 shows from BBC Radio Bristol done in 1971 after his Radio 1 firing (12th Jun, 3rd July).

If you're looking for a family film this winter, why not stick the Japanese adaptation of #TheImaginary (book by me and #EmilyGravett!) in your eyes and hearts. It's all hand-drawn animation and is a big snowball of heart and sadness and spookiness and imagination... www.netflix.com/search?q=the...

The wolves are running! Feeling so festive and wintery watching the real snow scenes in the 40th anniversary showing of John Masefield's 'The Box of Delights' on BBC4 - what a treat! #TheBoxofDelights #UKKidlt www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/epis...

I’ve written about so many Christmas books over the years that I somehow forgot I interviewed Emily Sutton about The Christmas Eve Tree. It’s the story of a fir that finds itself unsold at Christmas time and is rescued from a department store’s bin by a homeless boy. tygertale.com/2015/12/05/t...

Issue #1 of Shelf magazine is here. Excellent new magazine about picture books. A big reviews section and features about favourites including Laura Carlin, Mac Barnett and Chris Haughton. Exciting!

In Harvey Slumfenburger's Christmas, Santa moves through a slowly waking world. Whether he's travelling by plane, motorbike or climbing mountains, artist John Burningham fills each spread wit splashes of colour & light #TygertaleAdvent Find a copy in my bookshop: tygertale.etsy.com/listing/1118...

Had a super nice Christmas lunch and book swap with friends from the Bath Spa Uni MA in writing for young people yesterday. We all took a book and selected one at random. I got this beautiful edition of The Night Before Christmas, illustrated by P.J. Lynch. Perfect for #TygertaleAdvent

One of the many pleasures of reading classic Christmas books is the way they open a window to the past. The best of them highlight the small details and forgotten language of Christmas and few books do this more delightfully than The Box of Delights. #TygertaleAdvent tygertale.com/2018/12/03/t...

Published in 1974, The Silver Christmas Tree is a sequel to The Surprise Party, the first in a series of books about a group of animals friends, Squirrel, Rabbit, Duck, Mouse and Fox – a kinder version of the character from Rosie’s Walk. #TygertaleAdvent #BookSky tygertale.etsy.com/listing/1118...

With apologies to @pipmadeley.bsky.social

www.timwarnes.com/blog/2021/12... I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the bad things in the world I can't do anything about, so I want to share the @nosycrow.bsky.social book I did with Sam Usher as it feels like this HAS done good, both in raising money for, but also raising awareness of refugees.