• Cover power is EVERYTHING, it truly is - and if there's one thing all artists and authors should definitely tip a hat to it's how fantastic design folk can really take a piece of work and make it leap out at people. With non-fiction titles in particular, it was always cover power and the book title that drew people towards those books (though we found it really weird that despite our ridiculous bargain prices, in general most of the non-fiction titles didn't sell as well as expected, yet picture books and middle grade chapter books sold like hot cakes). 

• Grandparents still do the 'Is this suitable for a boy / girl / particular age group' thing. Despite all the amazing progress that has been made in putting an end to people's preconceptions about gender divisions in books, it's still difficult to get past this concept for a lot of folk. I think it comes from the era that people grew up in - and in particular grandparents who will undoubtedly still remember when books really were strongly divided up between "The Book of the Home for Girls" and "The Adventure Book for Boys" (in fact we spotted a couple of these on the secondhand book stall running at the same venue). We did our best to fend off questions that pushed towards a preference for girl / boy books but there are generations who (sadly) will never adapt or change their views on all that stuff. 

• Boys STILL turn their noses up at books that have a female main character. Despite my strong recommendations to a lady who wanted an exciting story for her 8 year old grandson who loves chapter books, I could not get her to buy Tom Fletcher's excellent "The Creakers" purely because the story had a female main protagonist. I think what made it worse was when I described Lucy as "Strong, gutsy, determined" - I could see the shutters coming down even harder with every effort I made to put across how great this book would be for her grandson. I also had similar experiences with a lot of the picture books, even colours of covers affecting someone's perception of whether their kids or grandkids would open those books on christmas day and immediately cast them aside. Sad that. 

• Book 'gimmicks' still dazzle and delight kids, even in an app-fed generation. Now THAT warmed the cockles of my heart. We had a lot of excellent books that 'did things' such as the awesome Pyjamarama titles with their dazzling visual trickery and 'moving' pages, and of course the wonderful paper engineering in pop-up books. We were also pleased to see that one of our theories was borne out, when two non-fiction titles for older kids that had lift-the-flap or expanding page elements sold almost immediately. It does prove that those book mechanisms and mechanics are not just for tinies. Older kids love them just as much too. 

• Teachers really know their stuff when it comes to books. We met quite a few teachers or TAs who'd come in to pick up books for school (and were duly given ridiculous discounts and even a few free titles thrown in as well). We had some great conversations with teaching folk and they really do know their onions, they know which authors are 'hot' with their classes, they know which publishers go the extra mile and they also have fantastic insights into the 'shelf life' of particular books - ie whether a book that's going to work well with their current Year 1 and 2 kids will still work on next year's intake as well. That was quite fascinating to talk about. 

• The classics still sell amazingly well. We had some really beautiful versions of classic children's stories on sale, and again these really sold amazingly. Nostalgia definitely works, and quite often we'd sell books to parents who were buying a book they'd loved as a child or something by an author or illustrator they'd always loved to pass on to their own children. Stories like "The Secret Garden" and even more 'grown up' classics like "Journey to the Centre of the Earth" and the timeless "Wind in the Willows" were snapped up double-quick. We've always secretly wondered whether people still bought the real old classics for their kids, looks like the answer is a firm "Yes!"

• (Sadly?) 'celebrity books' still grabbed a lot of attention. We were quite amazed by how many kids instantly knew the author of a celebrity book (even ones we never really recognised when we reviewed the titles) - even if the definition of 'celebrity' was stretched to fit folk who fall into a real niche market. I surreptitiously did a lot of "If you like their books, you're REALLY going to love this person's books" so doing a bit of trumpeting and championing for authors and illustrators who might have been shoved to one side a bit in recent marketing and PR. For everyone who came to the table looking for a new David Walliams story we could easily swap in and find ten other authors whose stuff was just as clever, funny and brilliant - and definitely worth reading as well as David's work. 

• Last but by no means least, you just cannot categorise book folk nor second-guess what their tastes are. It's getting tougher every year, particular when you're trying to predict what will be a hit for kids - and what their parents / grandparents etc might *THINK* is a suitable book for their children. Age in particular is a toughie as we sold a lot of chapter books to kids who were obviously younger than C but still as wildly enthusiastic about middle grade stuff as she is. Similarly, we sold a lot of picture books to older kids who still love illustration-heavy stuff. It just goes to show just how hard it is to pull any metrics out of children's books or try to predict trends and patterns (for example, we had books about fidget spinners which were completely and totally ignored - so that trend definitely seems 'over' but we had a lot of kids who were really interested in 'traditional' subjects such as Knights and Dragons, or non-fic books about transport (and here's a huge klaxon for anyone out there planning a non fiction book, there are NOT NEARLY ENOUGH INTERESTING BOOKS ABOUT METHODS OF TRANSPORTATION! Just a subtle hint there). 

It's November, how did it get to be November? We're fresh from a fantastic book roundup featuring spooks and sorcery in October and once again we're catching up with even more in our November roundup.

Starting with "How to Bewitch a Wolf" by Abie Longstaff, the long anticipated follow-up to her fabulous "How to catch a witch".

Once again we catch up with Charlie, who is finally testing her powers as a witch.

But when new boy Zack joins the school, everything goes wrong. He seems perfect - but Charlie is sure there's more to him than meets the eye. Will she be able to use all her newfound powers to work out just what Zack is up to and where he keeps disappearing to when the moon is full?

It's another enchanting exploration of friendship and magic, with tons of originality and character. "How to Bewitch a Wolf" by Abie Longstaff is out now, published by Scholastic. 

Sticking with sorcery for the moment, here's one for all you budding witches to try out, a distinctly different journal idea for YA / Older kids...

"Basic Witches" by Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman really ain't your grandma's grimoire. This is a bang-up-to-date exploration of how to summon success, banish drama and raise hell with your own coven (though, those of you old enough to remember cheese-fest movie "The Craft" might not want to go too far down the dark path, just a polite warning!)

Readers will discover how to tap into their inner sorceress and channel the dark arts for everything from cluttered apartments to dating disasters.
It's 1913, nine years after the end of A Little Princess saw Sara Crewe escape Miss Minchin's orphanage.
As mascots, messengers, rat-catchers and even spies, animals have long marched into war alongside servicemen and women.
The poems have been specially chosen to reflect Roger's unique sense of humour, his wit and wisdom and sharp observations on all aspects of life.

How do you feel today? Are you happy? Sad? Grumpy? In a bad mood perhaps?

'Tis the season to be jolly, well almost - but its also the season to dip back into our comic book grab-bag and bring you some of the highlights coming your way, or already sitting on comic store shelves and e-stores trying to tempt you into parting with your hard-earned cash.

Titan are blowing us away with their current lineup, and we've been taking a look at their new lineup, starting with the fantastic Doctor Who comics. There's truly something for everyone in the range, depending on your favourite Doctor.

I've always had a massive soft spot for Jon Pertwee (Doc 3) and Paul Cornell, Christopher Jones and Hi Fi's excellent "Heralds of Destruction" is an action packed adventure that is such a fantastic fit for Pertwee fans.

Reuniting Doc 3 with Jo Grant (yes!!!) and The Brigadier (YESSSS!) and of course Roger Delgado's stylish but chilling turn as The Master (YEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!) this is an absolute belter of a story arc.

After enlisting the help of his past selves to defeat the insane timelord Omega, The Doctor fixes the TARDIS dematerialisation circuits and is no longer earth-bound.

But The Doctor's favourite adopted planet is never at peace for long, and as UNIT struggles to contain a new menacing set of extraterrestrial invaders, The Doctor is once again called in to try and resolve the situation before the world is destroyed. But there's an unexpected foe to deal with too, the return of an old enemy - and an even more problematic catastrophe as The Doctor's past incarnation begins to meddle with time itself...

This is fantastic stuff as you can see...

We've seen lots of books based on hit songs, but we think this one is definitely very timely and apt for the sort of weather we've been having lately...

It's the return of a toddler twosome! Laurel Snyder and Emily Hughes return with a new chapter (or three) in the lives of Charlie and Mouse...

Oberon Publishing have a well-established back catalogue of fantastic modern plays for children to perform, and they've been kind enough to send us a couple of plays to take a look at...

Here's a rather attractive and innovative book from Dorling Kindersley, part bedtime story but also a really cool way to learn about the moon phases...

Our Second Picture Book of the Week this week proves that Big Picture Press have come back with a bang towards the end of the year, putting out some truly stunning books...

One of the favourite questions we get on the blog is "I used to love comics as a kid, but I don't know where to start my child off with them" - Our Comic Book of the Week this week is definitely a fantastic place to start...

We absolutely cannot resist a fantastic dreamy story about dragons, so our first Picture Book of the Week this week is a superb example that (literally) leaps off the page at you!

Oh what fun there has been lately in the book world. The highly anticipated John Lewis Christmas Ad campaign rolled out "Moz the Monster" with an accompanying book to go with the ad.

It didn't take long before Chris Riddell took heed of the various tweets and messages about the similarities between Moz and his own picture book Mr Underbed and lightheartedly voiced thanks for John Lewis' promotion of 'his' story.

Eerie similarities there are indeed, and the subsequent championing of Riddell's cause (he's a popular bloke y'know!) meant that Mr Underbed is now being hastily reprinted, and has ended up selling quite well - perhaps equally as well as Moz the Monster? We'll have to have a look at the end of week charts for this week to see.

This incident raised a lot of questions and definitely feels like the tip of the iceberg for a larger scale debate on 'plagiarism' in children's books. After all, we have seen many cases raised where authors of 'grown up' books have successfully sued a would-be cash ins or clones of their own books and have seen some sort of justice served.

At home there was quite a heated conversation about this. My wife (bless her) came firmly down on the side of Moz, John Lewis and Nosy Crow, with the quite correct observation that stories about monsters under the bed are definitely nothing new, but nor could any one author or illustrator claim that their work was "the original" and definitive.

(To that end, we really enjoyed THIS book about a creature living under the bed too and I've not seen it mentioned once anywhere!)

Emily Brown and the Thing by Cressida Cowell and Neal Layton

Here's a fantastically inspirational book, reclad and reprinted with an all-new mighty girl cover - it's the fantastic "Girls who Rocked the World" by Michelle Roehm McCann and Amelie Welden...

The huge surge in interest in STEM subjects amongst children is a fantastic thing to see...

I can honestly say we've never reviewed a book with such a zazzy title - but there's a rather neat STEM message tucked into the story of Magnolia Mudd...

Every now and again it's great to see children's books dabble with surreality in such a cool way as with this one...

We really, really love map books, atlases and quality non fiction so we were extremely excited to see a copy of "Urban Jungle" pop through our door...

This is a story that sang out to us with the sweetest voice possible with such an inspired and original idea...

Here's an adorable story of a little boy and his pet...Elephant? Yes, let's talk about the snoozing elephant in the room!

We absolutely LOVE The Powerpuff Girls. One of the joys of being a parent is introducing your kids to all the cool stuff you've loved watching in younger days...