The Guardian children’s books site began on World Book Day 2011 with this video featuring some of our very first members. A host of authors joined in to launch the site, including Jacqueline Wilson who read from Lily Alone and answered readers’ questions. It was a great adventure which is now coming to an end, but it has left us all with zillions of wonderful memories.

Our very first children’s books site podcast was with Malorie Blackman, who read from Boys Don’t Cry and answered readers’ questions. Malorie went on to become children’s laureate from 2012-2014 and we were with her all the way.

David Walliams introduced his children’s book Billionaire Boy on the site:

We won’t say we made him, but John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars was one of our first teen book club reads. Site member Patrick got to interview John Green back in 2013. Here’s a podcast with Green, recorded in Guardian towers.

Fast forward to World Book Day 2014, and authors Jacqueline Wilson, SF Said and Jim Smith get grilled by their own characters (site members dressed up for the occasion!):



World Book Day is always an exciting time, the day when everyone else is a little bit more “booky” and the world feels just about right. Check out our dress-up galleries from 2014, 2015 and 2016 (we also ran a special author dress-up gallery - and our favourite has to be Pamela Butchart).

During its five years, the site has also been a pioneering force for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) representation in literature (see our best LGBT books for children and teenagers recommendations); it has always championed diversity of all types, from race (see our 50 best diverse books) to disability (calling for more disabled representation in books) to class (read “are children’s books a middle class ghetto?”). We’ve also celebrated feminism and mental health issues, and explored censorship and “dangerous” books.

Above all, Guardian children’s books has been a place for young people to share their thoughts and ideas on book-related topics. Here are 10 of their most popular contributions:

I read books, does that make me a nerd? by OrliBookWorm

Why YA fiction needs to embrace diversity, by WriteronWheels



Where are all the disabled characters like me in books?, by Megan TheBookAddictedGirl

Why books need to be accessible for visually impaired people, by Maya

Why we’re occupying the Carnegie Library in London, by Demi

I have autism and the lack of authentic autistic voices in books angers me by Sara

Why do books still exist? by OrliBookworm

The top 10 recommended books by transgender authors featuring trans characters by teen member John Hansen.

Why do so many children’s books treat diversity as a black and white issue? by Safah

And last but not least , don’t miss this heartbreaking teen blog on ending the stigma of mental health.

And of course your reviews have been epic. Since 2011, every week we have published at least 20 site members’ reviews - on debut novels, highly-anticipated sequels and old classics. So that’s (on a rough count!) over 5000 reviews! And that’s not to mention those from our family reviewers, who have reviewed picture books for us every month on Witness.

Authors haven’t been shy about coming forward to have their say either: among our favourites are Samantha Shannon on Why the headteacher who believes reading Harry Potter causes mental illness is wrong, Holly Bourne on mental health, Mylo Freeman on why black girls can be princesses too, Chris Vick on not protecting teenagers from controversial subjects like sex and drugs in fiction and Juno Dawson (when she went by the name of James) on learning to love poetry.

We also loved Dave Rudden on how teenage boys are told not to feel, Non Pratt on why adults shouldn’t be ashamed to read children’s books and Louise O’Neill on her journey to feminism, and many more.



This piece on refugees by Nicola Davies sparked a Twitter campaign, #3000chairs.

Our legendary Twitter chats between authors and teenagers have regularly trended - we’ve discussed teen books and mental health, feminism, taboos, fantasy, climate change, representation of LGBT characters, gender identity in teen fiction and the future of YA.

We have shared some sad times. When Louise Rennison, who gave the world Georgia Nicolson, died in February 2016, we celebrated her life with some of her greatest quotes.

On a more cheerful note, our Harry Potter sorting hat quiz has sorted hundreds of thousands of readers into the right houses: which one are you in?

We’ve learned how to draw… kittens, pandas, finches, bears, woolly mammoths, sunsets, hares, badgers, penguins, evil penguins, Darth Vader, with pencil shavings, with charcoal… anything.

And last but not least, we’ve melted at the power of sloths.

But the point is, it’s not over. The Guardian is still championing children’s books, just in a different way.

The Guardian main books site will continue to cover children’s and teen books, and will keep on many of the best-loved regular features from the site. However, instead of being aimed at children, we’ll be aiming our coverage at adults (and this includes young adults), which will allow us to go in new directions. We’ll be able to run comments beneath stories, for example, so that means more recommendations and dialogue about children’s books (you need to be 16 or older to comment on the Guardian).

For our younger fans, we’re planning a children’s books festival in October 2016, and our young critics competition will launch on 8 July 2016, along with this year’s Guardian children’s fiction prize longlist.

This site will run as usual until 8 July 2016 and reviews from site members sent in by the end of June will be posted until that time. After then, we’ll see you over on the Guardian main books site.

All the content we’ve made over the last five years will be staying on the site. Here’s how you can find site members’s reviews from ages 7 and under, 8-12, teens, and book groups. Thank you so much to everyone who contributed. It’s been fun.