World Book Day 2018

I wanted to make a blog post to celebrate the frankly incredible costumes you guys put together for this years World Book Day. I think you all look amazing. 

Some children dressed up even though school was cancelled due to snow (that’s you Max!) 

I was told one librarian dressed up as Lucretia Cutter and her assistant dressed up as a rhinoceros beetle, and Lucretia chased the beetle around every classroom in the school! 

To all you wonderful readers, Thankyou. Here’s a gallery of images of your wonderful costumes.

If you dressed up and want to be added to the gallery just send me a picture via Facebook, twitter or email.

M. G. Leonard on Lauren Laverne's Memory Tapes for BBC 6 Music

This morning I had a lovely chat with Lauren Laverne on BBC 6 music about my Beetle Boy trilogy and how I came to write three books inspired by the insects when I was originally scared of them.

I put together a playlist of five tracks that encapsulated each of the three books, so fifteen tracks in all, and Lauren selected five to play on the show.

You can listen here and find out what the other tracks were. If you're a Humphrey and Pickering fan, then you won't be disappointed. I've got tracks in there for Novak, Lucretia, Darkus and of course the beetles.

Enjoy!

Battle of the Beetles is PUBLISHED!

ON February 1st 2018 the final instalment of my beetle filled trilogy was published. I hope you all enjoy how this epic story ends. Perhaps it might inspire you to go out into your gardens and befriend some beetles.

If you want to help me get the beetle books into the hands of readers, then please do hop over to Amazon and give the books a review. This is the single nicest thing you can do for an author whose books you've enjoyed.

I must also give a shout out to all the wonderful children who've sent me selfies of themselves with their books. These pictures rock my beetle loving world. Thank-you!

Battle of the Beetles - Special Sprayed Edges

A limited number of the first edition of Battle of the Beetles will be made with beautiful sprayed edges. These will be exclusively available through Waterstones in the first weeks of publication. If you want one to complete your collection you'll have to be quick!

UPDATE - copies of the book have been spotted in the wild. If you want to grab one call your local Waterstones.

Battle of the Beetles is printed and on its way to the shops

Just before Christmas I had the joyous experience of going to the book printing factory and seeing the final part of my beetle trilogy coming hot off the printing press. It was such fun I made a video about the experience to share with you. I can't wait till this book wings it's way out into the bookshops and people get to read the final part of my story.

I'm a judge for the BIG IDEA COMPETITION 2018

If you have an idea for a story that could be a children's book, an animation or a movie, then you have a big idea! And, if you fancy submitting it to the big idea competition, then you could win £1000 and see it turned into any or all of those things. I am joining a very prestigious panel of judges who will be reviewing the ideas and choosing the winners. You can find out all about it here.

COMPETITION! Win all the Tom Fletcher Book Club books for your school library

COMPETITION! Watch the video to find out how you can win all of the Tom Fletcher Book Club books for your school library.

Email the name of your school and the librarian or teacher who looks after the library, with their contact email address to info@mgleonard.com

Closing date 1st December

For UK Schools only.

Beetle Queen is nominated for the 2018 Carnegie Medal

I am delighted that Beetle Queen has been nominated for the 2018 Carnegie Medal.

The Carnegie Medal is special because to be nominated is to be chosen by librarians up and down the country for this prestigious prize.

The second book in a trilogy often gets very little attention, rather like a middle child, and I love my middle child. She may be villainous and frightening in places, but I'm proud of her.

It means a great deal to me that librarians rate the book, as my reading world was built in libraries, and my taste developed by librarians. I owe them everything, including my career.

So hoorah for Beetle Queen and all librarians everywhere.

Exclusive! Read a deleted scene from Beetle Boy

As part of the Tom Fletcher Book Club for WHSmith, I let them have an exclusive scene that was cut from Beetle Boy, and which no one has ever read before. Originally the book had a prologue which explained how the beetles came to Nelson Parade and built their home in the mountain of mugs in Humphrey Gamble's bedroom. Now you can read that missing scene.

Tom Fletcher reads Beetle Boy

Why don't you sit back, relax, and listen to the wonderful Tom Fletcher from McFly reading you the opening chapter of Beetle Boy.

Beetle Boy is selected to be a White Raven 2017

Beetle Boy by M.G. Leonard, with illustrations fromJúlia Sardà, is a White Raven 2017. It has been selected for the White Raven annual book catalogue, of book recommendations in the field of international children’s and youth literature. This year’s White Ravens catalogue contains 200 titles in 38 languages from 56 countries and represents the best children's books in Europe. The list will be launched at Frankfurt and be on display at Bologna next year. It's such an honour.

I'm contributing to an anthology celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Women's suffrage

I am so pleased to be a part of this project which sees a whole bunch of my favourite authors writing stories about kickass girls and heroic women to celebrate the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage. Needless to say, my story will have bugs in it, after all #BugsR4Girls. Read below what Nosy Crow - the publisher - has to say about the book, Make More Noise! which will be available in bookshops on the same day as Battle of the Beetles is published, February 1st 2018.

Tom Fletcher chooses Beetle Boy to be a part of his new WHSmiths Children's Book Club

Tom Fletcher and WHSmiths have joined forces to create a children's book club, which is wonderful news. The best bit of the story is that Tom loves Beetle Boy and chose it to be one of the first ten titles in the book club. As if this couldn't be topped, he's made a BRILLIANT video about the book club which meant he had to dance around with a giant Beetle Boy! Honestly, I can't tell you how happy I am right now.

You can read more about Tom Fletcher's Book Club, the exclusive content and the other brilliant books on the list here.

Edinburgh Festival was a blast!

I did three days of events at Edinburgh Book Festival this year and I had the best time. Thanks to all the girls, boys and grown-ups who came to meet the beetles, and a special big thankyou to Callum from Cool Creatures for bring the beetles. It's not every day you get to see a giant African fruit beetle flying in a tent in Scotland! Here are some pictures from the festival, but my favourites are of course when I got to do my official portrait with a PYTHON! Thanks Callum for the loan of your beautiful albino python.