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Jane Smiley and Neel Mukherjee on family fictionPulitzer prizewinner Jane Smiley introduces the first in her new dynastic trilogy, while Neel Mukherjee explains his love-hate relationship with the family saga -
Wonder Woman: the feministHer creators were ‘sex radicals’ and she was designed to represent the suffragist as pin-up. Newly discovered private papers reveal the secret history of the world’s most famous female superhero -
The Last Saturday, by Chris WareRead the latest installment of the new graphic novella by the award-winning cartoonist Chris Ware, tracing the lives of six individuals from Sandy Port, Michigan
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What should we do with private schools?All politicians favour people moving ‘up in the world’. So why has social mobility in Britain gone into decline? For social historian David Kynaston the answer begins with our elitist and divisive system of education
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The best crime and thrillers of 2014Louise Welsh’s dystopian tale of plague in London and Tom Rob Smith’s Swedish family chiller are among the highlights in this year’s roundup, writes Laura Wilson
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Tim Dowling hosts the G2 Christmas QuizJoin us for a special end of year quiz at London’s the Tabernacle on Wednesday 10 December
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The best crime and thrillers of 2014Louise Welsh’s dystopian tale of plague in London and Tom Rob Smith’s Swedish family chiller are among the highlights in this year’s roundup, writes Laura Wilson
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How well do you know the Marquis de Sade?It's 200 years since this most notorious author died and his work has lost none of its power to shock. Dare you submit to the scandalous torture of our quiz?
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What can children learn from crime classics like Peter Rabbit?From the Tale of Peter Rabbit to the Albergs’ classic Burglar Bill, our Book Doctor seeks out the best children’s books exploring crime – and the great moral debates you can have after reading them!
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John Corey Whaley's best coming of age storiesFrom Catcher in the Rye to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the stories that help us make sense of the world
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Satoshi Kitamura on why he loves Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy and mangaWhen Satoshi Kitamura came to the UK he was shocked to find reading comics was looked down on, things were very different in Japan...
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Blue Peter book award 2015 shortlist announcedSix books in the running for the 15th Blue Peter book award, including Chris Riddell’s new Goth Girl adventure and a comic strip
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Exploring conflict through teen and YA books
Discussions Exploring conflict through teen and YA books
Kerry Drewery asks why there is an Iraq shaped void in teen and YA fiction and calls for more teen and YA books to be set in the Middle East -
Edward Carey: welcome to my Gothic worldEdward Carey shares illustrations of a particularly unsettling and strange bunch of Victorian characters that star in his Gothic epic Heap House and its sequel Foulsham
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Snow by Walter de la MareHappy December everyone! Now we are officially allowed to think about Christmas and wintery things – so let’s get in the mood with a very beautiful animation
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Enter the Cuckoo Young Writers Award 2015
Writing competition Enter the Cuckoo Young Writers Award 2015
Site member Wolfheart recommends teenagers living in the North of England enter this amazing competition -
How much do you know about Paddington Bear?
The lovable bear in the familiar duffel coat makes the leap from page to screen as Paddington hits cinemas this week. But how much do you know about him?
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Russell Brand's Pied Piper among the Imagine festival's temptationsJudith Kerr, Russell Brand, Lauren Child, Anthony Horowitz and Axel Scheffler headline at the Southbank’s Imagine children’s festival 2015
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justonemorepage on I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
justonemorepage: 'Be prepared with more tissues than you needed for The Fault in Our Stars, a chunky notebook to scribble down all the quotes and a handful of witty responses when people ask why you're chuckling to yourself in the corner'
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The Forty Rules of Love - review
Afzii47: 'I really liked the novel and most of it is because of Shams of Tabriz, from his rules of love to his strong personality to his love and belief on god everything was mesmerizing'
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Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor by Jon Scieszka - review
Gryffindor: 'A review on the back of the book says 'I never knew science could be so funny'. I agree that it is funny but it looks serious next to my first book review'
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Reader reviews roundup
Our site members have been browsing through poetry, books about spies and historical fiction featuring tigers this week
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I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai - review
faithgirl400: 'My favourite quote from the book is: 'I wasn't sad, I wasn't scared, I just thought: it doesn't matter what I look like, I was alive, I was thankful''
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First ever YA Book Prize shortlist announced!Newsflash: Old hands Marcus Sedgwick, David Almond and James Dawson compete with newcomers Non Pratt, Sally Green and others among the top 10 titles up for the £2,000 prize
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Summer Holiday Mystery by Holly and Kelly Willoughby - review
Poppy68: 'I loved this book, which is the fourth in the L'Etoile series, because it's full of dramatic twists in the plot that keep you reading on and wondering what will happening next'
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Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders - review
Poppy68: 'I enjoyed E. Nesbit's Five Children and It so it was great to read a first world war sequel'
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Family book reviews – in picturesJohn Lewis penguins, marauding apes, a dog-eating book, abstract stories and a swishing Queen’s Hat all feature in our gallery of picture book reviews from the last month
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Frozen by Melissa de la Cruz - review
Butterfly Rainbow: 'I felt that it began a touch slowly and I read not much of it over three days, but after the exciting sections began, I breezed through it in a day!'
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Cool! by Michael Morpurgo - review
Twilight Vi: 'The book is written in first person which I love because I actually feel like I am him. Once you start reading it you just can't stop'
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The Squickerwonkers by Evangeline Lilly - review
TwilightVi: 'I still think this is an amazing book but for 8 and up, no little kids should read this because they will get nightmares'
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What are you reading with your child this month? DecemberReview the picture book you’re currently reading with your child – and show us a photo – and we’ll choose the best for a gallery on the Guardian children’s books site
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Ariel by Sylvia Plath - review
Scoutingforbooks: 'The book is an insight into her mind, as I feel poetry is to every poet'
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Zoe Sugg's Girl Online is fastest selling book of the yearYouTube star Zoella’s first book sells 78,000 copies in its first week, the highest first week’s sales of a new author ever!
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How the tiger came to be
In pictures How the tiger came to be
In a series of annotated editions to be sold for charity, authors and illustrators from Judith Kerr to Quentin Blake and Raymond Briggs reveal the stories behind their most famous books -
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Going, going, gone: Phases of Twilight by Jessa Gamble
Going, going, gone: Phases of Twilight by Jessa Gamble
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The DSC South Asian literature prize shortlist – in picturesGet to know the five novels – whose subjects range from the glory days of the Mughal empire to traumatised modern Sri Lanka – in contention for the $50,000 award
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PD James – a life in picturesWe celebrate the life of PD James, with portraits which find her at work, on the beach in Southwold and with the television incarnation of her most popular character, Adam Dalgliesh
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The Costa book awards shortlists 2014 – in picturesThis year’s shortlists feature household names alongside new voices, and subjects ranging from Renaissance painters to restaurants
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Going, going, gone: So Full of Shapes by John Burnside
The second in a series of sound stories designed to lull you into sleep
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Notes to self: from Philip Roth to Gillian Flynn, authors look back at their workWriters from Philip Roth to Gillian Flynn and from Toni Morrison to Richard Ford have returned to their own work to annotate a selection of first editions. Take a look at the novel still closest to Anne Tyler’s heart and the pages which make Neil Gaiman the most proud as we round up the highlights from an auction in support of American PEN
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‘Any of the events in PD James's books might have happened’Ruth Rendell looks back on her 40-year friendship with her fellow crime novelist PD James – ‘such a nice woman’
