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If you are not an avid reader, then we have some handy tips to try and help you get into books! Listen to audiobooks, it’s a great way of being able to hear a book and still be able to imagine all sorts without actually having to read. Start with short stories. Short stories will help you start to build up your reading. Quite a few authors have a book of short stories, so you could find an author you liked and then build up to a full book. Go chapter by chapter. Don’t try to...

Rachael Lindsay is one of our most popular children’s authors. She regularly visits schools throughout the year to promote her books and engage children in reading and writing. Her sixth book with us, The Changeling’s Child, was released last December and we’re thrilled to be able to ask her some questions about her work. How would you describe The Changeling’s Child and who would you say it is aimed at? The Changeling’s Child is a tale of talking mu...

For so many people, their first memories of stories will be the fairy tales read to them as a child. Now it’s time to return to stories of our youth, with the increasing number of retellings, reworkings and books inspired by favourite fairy tales. We’ve taken a look at just five of our favourites. Splintered by A.G. Howard This one isn’t exactly a retelling as a ‘what might happen next’. Alyssa Gardner is a descendent of Alice Liddell, ...

Ruth Less, author of Divine Timingshares a glimpse of her life as an author. 1. Did you always dream of becoming an author? I am the youngest child of six, and so I learnt from an early age that to get attention you needed to tell a good tale. I was good at that and later on this developed into short stories. 2. What was your first job? I left school at sixteen and trained as a silver service waitress. I'm good with people and found making conversation easy. T...

Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, it is nearly the weekend and possibly a holiday for most of you. So, what are some great holiday ideas to do on these cold winter days? We have written up a list of five activities you could do in the coming week. Go for a wintery stroll along the river/by the sea/in your nearest town. If you celebrate Christmas, then why not go for the last option and have a look at the Christmas lights? Make a hot chocolate with wh...

There’s been a rumour going around that people with messy handwriting are more intelligent? Is this true? We’re going to try and find out! Doctors are renowned for having unclear scrawls on the prescriptions they give out. But is there real science behind this? Turns out there is… sort of. If you have large handwriting you want to come across as clear and be noticed. If you have small writing you’re more introverted and more likely to concentrate. ...

Ever wondered how they used to print books? We thought it was quite exciting, so we decided we would share it. So to start let’s head back to around 3000 BC! Woodblock printing is the earliest form of printing dating back to the Mesopotamian civilization around 3000 BC. The wood block is prepared as a relief pattern which means that the areas that are not to be printed are cut away with either a knife a chisel or even sandpaper. This leaves the characters/images to show in black. The...

Christmas. It’s a time of giving and, whether you loathe the commercialisation of a religious holiday, or you love the chance to indulge your loved ones (or yourself) that now comes to mean one thing: presents! To spread a little humour in the week leading up to ‘The Big Day’ we are taking a look at some of our favourite literary characters and deciding just what they should be getting under their Christmas tree this year. Dobby The House-elf ...

It can be hard to get a child to read. Especially with all the new technology that is about. What child would want to pick a book up when they can play Skylanders, Minecraft or Pokémon. So, children like interactive things, that is clear to see, if your child is a tech robot and their tab, laptop, mobile phone (yes even a phone!) never leaves their hand, maybe you can try an interactive book. There are many interactive books out there, whether that is one with little pull out levers or fl...