Efua Traor News Today

From a bear who stockpiles dreams to a sisterhood of knights via a tiger sea captain, our critics pick their favourite titles for children and young adults

A very grumpy toddler; poems for the planet; ancient demons unleashed; and a moving YA trafficking tale

Recommended reads for the school summer holidays

Check out our comprehensive A-to-Z listings of publishers’ spring offerings for kids and teens, and more, in our Spring Announcements issue.

Fiona Noble looks back on the year and, below, our critics pick their favourites in each age group

The online publication’s annual list celebrates not only the sheer abundance of African literature but its daring, new directions

When my daughter came home from school one day saying she’d learnt that children in Africa suffer and don’t have food, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back

Magic can be controversial, though. Not in the sense of US fundamentalists decrying Harry Potter, but in that it sometimes provides a cheap way out of a plot hole. A selection of this season’s books pivot on some otherworldly powers, but this is the internally-consistent stuff of fable and legend, not just deus ex machina hocus pocus. Efua Traoré, author of Children of the Quicksands. Photograph: Boubacar Traoré The setup for Kirsty Applebaum’s of Lonny Quicke (Nosy Crow) is...