Summer reading: 50 of the best new books to dive into
Fresh debuts, long-awaited sequels, must-read memoirs ... the best new books of the season. Plus our pick of paperbacks and children’s fiction
Pamela Allen on Mr McGee and turning 90: ‘I’ve always known what I’m doing is good’
From Who Sank the Boat? to Alexander’s Outing, Allen’s picture books are beloved. But after losing her husband she’s written a new book to ‘re-establish my sense of worth’
‘Extraordinary’ Joseph Coelho novel wins Carnegie medal for children’s writing
‘Extraordinary’ novel The Boy Lost in the Maze takes prestigious honour while sister prize for illustration goes to Aaron Becker’s wordless The Tree and the River
Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels
Golden numbers; an intergalactic snail trail; an immersive guide to art; a tale of hope amid poverty; and a girl who can’t lie
On my radar: Daniel Handler, AKA Lemony Snicket, on his cultural highlights
The US children’s author and novelist on a sublime musical trio, how spices reinvigorated his cooking, an addictive ‘mid-19th century’ BBC panel show and being floored by a new jazz track
More than a quarter of readers of YA are over the age of 28 research shows
Report commissioned by HarperCollins shows that uptake in YA fiction in older readers is due to behavioural changes described as ‘emerging adulthood’ or delaying ‘adult’ life
Swearing, snogging and spying: Cherub’s cool teenage secret agents hit 20
Robert Muchamore’s series of novels about young undercover intelligence operatives with troubled lives shook up the sanitised world of early noughties YA literature
Children’s and teens roundup – the best new chapter books
Lauren Child brings a light touch to big issues, Elle McNicoll explores autism – and a secret society is at work in Paris’s sewers
Martha Mills young writers’ prize open for entries
Philip Pullman will help choose this year’s winners of award set up in memory of the keen young writer who died aged 13 in 2021
Children’s and teens roundup – the best new picture books and novels
An ungrammatical egg; a demystifying approach to death; 10 new poets to read aloud; and a stunning gothic mystery
Elmer and the climate crisis: lost story by David McKee set to be published
The late illustrator’s elephant hero is to star in a new ecological fable after the discovery of a rough manuscript and drawings
Greg James apologises for suggestion a glass eye would make Roald Dahl Twit disgusting
Promotional video for a Twits spin-off book by broadcaster and his colleague Chris Smith is criticised by charity for the blind
Lynne Reid Banks obituary
Bestselling author of the 1960 novel The L-Shaped Room and the children’s classic The Indian in the Cupboard
Laurent de Brunhoff obituary
Author and illustrator who carried on his father Jean’s adventures of Babar in more than 40 books
Botanical fairytale set in Kew Gardens wins the Waterstones children’s book prize
Greenwild: The World Behind the Door by Pari Thomson – about a girl who finds a door to a magical realm while searching for her mother – wins the overall and young readers awards