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. Working with schools across the whole of England, 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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We talk with Tom McLaughlin about his graphic novel Alan, King of the Universe. Alan is an orange cat convinced he is born to rule. Blessed with opposable thumbs and a side kick called Fido, he spends his days dreaming up ways to take up the universe.

Tom's website can be found here and here are some links to his books:

Alan King of the Universe

The Day that Aliens (nearly) Ate our Brains

The Day I Became the Most Wanted Boy in the World

The Accidental Prime Minister

You've Been Werewolfed

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Join us to hear all about Jasbinder Bilan's new book, Naeli and the Secret Song. Find out where the idea came from and the research she did.

Here are links to all of Jasbinder's Books

Naeli and the Secret Song

Aarti and the Blue Gods

Tamarind and the Star of Ishta

Asha and the Spirit Bird

India, Incredible India, illustrated by Nina Chakrabarti

Xanthe and the Ruby Crown

Calling the Whales, illustrated by Skylar White

Nush and the Stolen Emerald

Paloma and the Bear, illustrated by Skylar White

Anya's Quest, illustrated by Jane Ray

And links to the book prizes we mentioned;

Jhalak Prize

The Women's Prize

The Week Junior Book Awards

Branford Boase Award

Keep up to date with Mostly Book Talk's newsletter on Substack

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We are joined by Alison Jewitt a teacher from South London who leads a Carnegie Shadowing Group at her school and Sophia Bower a school librarian from Durham who is a Carnegie judge this year.

We talk about shadowing groups and then all of the books on the Carnegie Medal for Writing shortlist. Sophia then hides while the rest of us make our predictions about who wins - we were completely wrong last year, can we do better this year?

Carnegie Medal Short Listed Books

All That it Ever Meant, Blessing Musariri

Glasgow Boys, Margaret McDonald

King of Nothing, Nathanael Lessore

Little Bang, Kelly McCaughrain

Play, Luke Palmer

The Final Year, Matt Goodfellow

The Things we Leave Behind, Clare Furniss

Treacle Town, Brian Conaghan

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