In in this episode we talk to AM Dassu about her latest book, Wild Journey. This is a collection of five interlinked stories about children around the world all connected by the sight of a murmuration of starlings. Fully illustrated by Joe Lillington.

AM Dassu's website can be found here and links to the books we discussed are below:

Wild Journey

Boy, Everywhere

Fight Back

Can You Find my Eid Presents?

Show Racism the Red Card (out Sept 2026)

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A quick trailer for our new mini series which will be out soon on the 'reading crisis' where we explore why children aren't reading and what we can do about it. Look out for the first episode.

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We are back and have an episode all about libraries. First up is an interview with Rebecca Gediking who is the Head of Libraries at GLL and also the Chair of the GLL Literary Foundation - which does lots of great work supporting children's authors in the areas in which GLL have libraries. Events there for schools to look out for and ideas for how other libraries might work with authors.

After that we talk to Barbara Band about her new book Championing Your School Library - a practical guide to advocacy, marketing and promotion which is of interest to both school librarians - in making sure everyone knows what the library offers and values it - and teachers who may not yet be using their school library to its full potential.

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We talk to Nathanael Lessore about his very successful debut and follow up books, about what's important when writing for teens and the role of humour.

You can find Nate's books here:

Teen/KS3 Books

Steady for This

King of Nothing

What Happens Online

Middle Grade Books

Solving Crimes is NOT my Superpower

Time Travel is NOT my Superpower

SAIL Fest (South Asian Children's Illustration and Literature)

To find out more about SAIL Fest have a look on their website.

And to check out all the authors that were there have a look here.

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Just in time for National Poetry Day, we have an interview with Dr Julie Blake the founder and co-director of Poetry by Heart. A UK wide project in which over 128,000 pupils take part every year, learning poems by heart and performing them.

There are lots of fantastic clips on their website of young people performing and all the information you need to sign up this year. And it is completely free to do so.

We also talk about Ross Montgomery's latest books - lots to recommend here. For children there is Small Wonder and for adults The Murder at World's End . Enjoy!

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Author Ashley Thorpe joins us to talk about his middle grade books The Boy to Beat the Gods and Spirit Warriors. Find out about how he was inspired by West African and Jamaican mythology and how long it really does take to have a breakout success as your debut book.

There is also a new Loki book out by Louie Stowell - A Bad God's Guide to Causing Chaos and there is a giveaway for a signed copy (UK only) - details will be on our socials. Also find out about her Lokifesto.

If you are looking for any of the books we talk about on the podcast, they can be found in our Bookshop.org shop here (and if you buy them we earn a small commission and a donation also goes to support independent bookshops). Win, Win.

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We are joined by Maisie Chan to talk about her latest book, Nate Yu's Blast from the Past. It's a draws on the untold history of the Chinese Labour Corps in WW1 in a story that combines a ghost story with a warm and humorous exploration of belonging, friendship and family.

Look out for the event that Maisie mentions at the British Library in September which can be found here

Maisie's website can be found here with lots more information about her books and other resources.

Her other books include:

Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths

Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu

Tiger Warrior: Attack of the Dragon King: Book 1

We also talked about books set at the seaside. These included:

The Last Pebble, by Alex Horne

Changing Tides, by Julia Moscardo

Our Pebbles, by Jarvis

Vanishing Edge, by Zillah Bethell

Turtle Moon, by Hannah Gold, illustrated by Levi Pinfold

If you have any book recommendations or topics you would like us to cover, get in touch.

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In this episode we talk with Justin Somper about the latest book in his Pirate Academy series, Sword Echoes. It came out in the UK in May and the series sets sail in Australia next week. Full of adventure and intrigue - perfect for a summer read.

Justin can be found on Instagram here

And links to his books are below:

New Kid On Deck: Pirate Academy #1

Missing at Sea: Pirate Academy #2

Sword Echoes: Pirate Academy #3

Demons of the Ocean

Tide of Terror

The Week Junior's Book Awards can be found here

And the apps we talked about are (no sponsorship involved!)

The StoryGraph

Novellic

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