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In this gripping investigation of children’s fiction, award-winning author Katherine Rundell makes a passionate argument for a literature that is often underrated, yet whose magic can live on inside us for the rest of our lives. The best children’s books need to be good enough both for the hungriest child and the wisest, sharpest adult.

In the third of five original essays about children’s fiction, Katherine reveals some of the ingredients that make a successful book. There are threads that run through the history of children’s literature and that still enthral readers today, including secrets, animals and jokes. The greatest children’s writers have always acknowledged their readers’ intelligence and have never been afraid to include sophisticated ideas or irony.

It’s the promise of the young reader’s imagination that appeals to Katherine herself as a children’s author - when you write for a child, you’re writing for someone who is in the process of becoming the person they will be.

Katherine Rundell is an acclaimed writer for children, winning Author of the Year and Book of the Year for Impossible Creatures at the British Book Awards 2024, and winner of the Costa Children’s Book Award.

Written and presented by Katherine Rundell
Producer: Jo Glanville
Editor: Kirsten Lass
Production Co-ordinator: Heather Dempsey
Studio Engineer: Dan King

A Loftus Media production for Â鶹Éç Radio 4

Photo credit: Nina Subin