As school begins to wind up, we’ve got the whole heady summer ahead of us. Here are Liz Flanagan’s recommended YA summery reads, from Meg Rosoff’s How I live Now to Kevin Brooks’ Black Rabbit Summer

Sometimes a quick read is all you need. Forget the fat tomes and get stuck into one of these slim stories

Ali Sparkes, author of the Dax Jones Shapeshifters series, shares her favourite foxy fables

Comics and sweet treats galore – who doesn’t love their grandmother? Jenny Downham chooses her favourite fictional nans, from Roald Dahl and Tove Jansson to Jandy Nelson

New York City is the perfect place to write in - and write about. Meg Leder, who has done both, picks her favourite books set in the Big Apple

From Tyger to Tigger, Lizzy Stewart picks her top tigers in fiction, of all different shapes, sizes and stripes

Dads often get a raw deal in picture books - often absent or else caricatured as the not-very-smart or the fix-it-all-with-my-toolbox father. Here Sean Taylor picks the best well-rounded dads in a selection of fabulous picture books for father’s day

The world can be a stressful and complex place. Here are 10 picture books that may help to make sense of it for young children - and perhaps their parents too

From Star Wars to Harry Potter via Oxford’s Bodleian, DD Everest celebrates the joy of magical libraries

Shops are familiar places to us all and yet in stories they are full of mystique and intrigue. Jennifer Bell shares her favourite fictional boutiques, salons and emporiums, from Ollivanders and Beatrix Potter to the Strand Bookshop in New York

From Malala to Anne Frank to Nelson Mandela, picture book biographies bring the real life stories of some of the world’s most celebrated people to life. We picked out some of the best

Sally Lloyd-Jones, author of Skip To the Loo, My Darling: A Potty Book, picks the best books for toddlers about the journey to the potty

From werewolves and vampires to sorcerers and wizards, fiction is packed with characters who have the fascinating power to take on another form. Aimée Carter, author of the Simon Thorn shapeshifting series, picks the best

From David Bowie’s 1984 to Firework by Katy Perry, art imitates art in this selection of literature-inspired songs

From Manderley and Castle Dracula to The House at Pooh Corner and Villa Villekulla, fictional homes can be powerful characters in their own right. Author Tom Easton picks his favourites

Is the adult in your life stuck? Author Kiran Millwood Hargrave recommends books you can suggest that they read to open their minds

From Smaug and Draco to Maleficent and Toothless, dragons range from the magnificent and terrifying to the tiny and adorable. Here are Julie Kagawa’s fictional favourites