This month marks 15 years since "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" made Kinney one of the world's most popular writers. I spoke to him about his start in children's literature and the mark he's left. Read more
Children's authors and performers say growing censorship, institutional timidity and online backlash are resulting in stories about diversity, sexuality and even contemporary world events being deemed inappropriate for younger readers.
For nearly two decades, I have been speaking about the ways adult gatekeepers encourage girls to read books about boys but discourage, prevent, or even shame boys from reading about girls. A couple of years ago, a helpful industry professional let me know that gendered reading wasn't an issue anymore. "We've moved past that, you don't need to keep talking about it."
"It's just great to be back in Bologna," said Margie Wolfe, publisher of Second Story Press of Toronto, Canada. "It's a little quieter than usual, but the meetings have been good." Wolfe echoed what many publishers are saying: the pandemic, which kept people at home for long stretches, helped fuel a boom in book sales. "We were up 100% in sales for 2021," said Wolff.
The Bologna Children's Book FairThe Bologna Children's Book Fair or La fiera del libro per ragazzi is the leading professional fair for children's books in the world. will run March 21-24 in its usual venue at the BolognaFiere exhibition center in Bologna, Italy. It will be the first time since 2019 that the fair will be held in person. Organizers say they've booked 950 exhibitors, down from 1,200 in 2018 and 2019. Sixty American companies, primarily small and medium publishing houses, will attend. Read more
Julia Donaldson pictured above has extended her seemingly unstoppable record-setting run of earning eight figures through Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. The £14.1m that the Gruffalo co-creator chalked up in 2021 is the 12th year on the trot she has eclipsed £10m, as she claimed the bestselling author in Britain crown for the second year in a row. Read more
The proportion of children's books featuring a minority ethnic character has almost quadrupled in the last four years, according to a new survey - but researchers say "we are not yet at the point where children of colour have the same experience of literature as their white peers".
Good children's literature is a serious business. Not serious as in boring or "improving", but serious in attention and ambition, serious about beauty and wonder, about engaging the brain but also the heart, about sadness and difficulty, but also about silliness and joy. Above all, it is serious about the legitimacy of a child's world - which is a world away from being child-ish.
Does it sound grand to say I have always written? It took me thirty years to get published, but now the second in the series of Albert the tortoise picture books is launching. Read more
‘I never planned to be a writer at all. For years, maybe even today, sometimes I think, "What exactly am I going to do with my life What is my career going to be? I'm only 80, for God's sake!... I am fascinated by endurance. Human beings really do lead lives of quiet desperation. It's admirable really. Families are basically the only group that can't easily split up.
Since I was a young child I've been fascinated by the identity people get from their families, good and bad, being part of a ‘gang'. The idea that for some people being in a large family gives them protection from the real world. Read more
You would think by now I would know how to make a book of poems. Apparently, I have written six books of poetry. But books are still a mystery to me. I begin, as most poets do, with one poem at a time. I make one poem and then stare at the terrifyingly bright world and convince myself I will never make another poem. Then, I somehow surprise myself and make another poem. Read more
Many years ago, Milwaukee-based book influencer Cree Myles first picked up Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and found the validation she didn't know she needed. The book affirmed many of her experiences moving through the world as a Black woman. Read more
The bells of St. Mary-Le-Bow toll eleven o'clock. The narrow streets of London's East End are strangely deserted. Out of the swirling fog comes the clip-clop of horseshoes on cobble. A carriage appears. I squint, struggling to decipher the crest on the carriage door. From within the passenger compartment, a gloved hand emerges. Wait - is that a gun?
During the recent pandemic, when children were going hungry because their parents were destitute, it took the moral authority of a 23-year-old footballer to get them fed. In earlier times it was the job of poets to summon our better angels, in the face of such obvious need. Read more
How difficult it seems, gazing back just seventy years to the late 1940s and 50s, to truly appreciate what a confusing and fraught era it was for our grandparents. The Soviet Union, recently an ally in the Second World War, was increasingly viewed as a threat with Stalin's imposition of the Iron Curtain and acquisition of an atomic bomb. Read more
I still have my first rejection letter from Mills and Boon. They were so encouraging, I tried again, and my next book was accepted. I had studied a law degree, and spent years in a job I hated, as a computer programme manager. Finally, I took redundancy, and that gave me the chance to write. So if you think you have a story in your head - write it down.
After all these years I can actually call myself a professional author. I've collected rejection slips, laboured in magazine writing, perfected my craft and built an audience until Lo! An agent came seeking me. Wanted to know about my book ideas. Wanted to represent me to editors. And proceeded to sell my book to my dream publisher.
The Flavia Albia series is a spin-off from your original Marcus Flaco series. Why did you end the Falco series and switch to his adopted daughter, Flavia? Read more
Publishing is facing "industry-wide burnout" according to a survey conducted by The Bookseller, which revealed 89% of staffers responding to the survey had experienced stress during the course of their work over the last year, while 69% reported burnout. Read more