World Book Day 2023

Every year, it is a huge joy to see your wonderful costumes on World Book Day.

I like to celebrate readers’ awesomeness by gathering the images I’m sent online into a gallery so that you know that I’ve seen your costumes and how wonderful they are! This year the costumes were off the chart levels of amazing. I’m truly blown away.

I hope you all had a wonderful World Book Day!

If you dressed up as a character from one of my books this year, I would like to thank you, because I am honoured that you have enjoyed my stories enough to make this effort to create a costume, and it makes me so happy to see them.

If you want to send me a picture to add to the gallery, you can post it on a social media platform and @ me in or email it to info@mgleonard.com

Murder on the Safari Star is nominated for an Edgar!

Murder on the Safari Star has been nominated for an Edgar award, (named after Edgar Allan Poe) by the Mystery Writers of America. This is the second time an Adventures on Trains book has been shortlisted for this incredible award. Last year I had been planning to go to New York for the ceremony but was thwarted by covid 19. This year, I cannot wait! Fingers crossed we win this time!

For Brits who may not know about these awards, they are the prestigious annual awards bestowed by the Mystery Writers of America. To be nominated is a huge honour and a big deal. I didn’t dare to dream that our Adventures on Trains would achieve such an accolade. I honestly couldn’t be more surprised or delighted.

You can read more about the awards here.

The winners are announced in April, so keep your fingers crossed for us.

End of Year Surprises!

This penultimate week of December has brought some surprising treats.

Piers Torday, a wonderful writer, penned an article about how celebrity children’s books were damaging to both the market and their readers. This triggered a segment on Radio 4’s Today show with Frank Cotterell Boyce and Robin Stevens, both of whom gave me a shout-out, which was lovely. The dominos kept falling as the next day The Telegraph arts editor wrote a feature about it and committed to reviewing at least one children’s book a week. In that article, he featured Spark and names me as one of the great writers for children producing books today. It was all unexpectedly lovely, especially because Spark hasn’t been mentioned once in the national press or media - which is standard for the second book in a series. Only stand-alone novels are ever reviewed. There was a second Today show segment with Katya Balan and then a third with Michael Rosen! It almost makes me feel like children’s books might finally get the attention they deserve… almost.

The Times awarded Sabotage on the Solar Express the accolade of Best Children’s Audiobook of the year! This is of course down to the talent of Jot Davies, the actor who reads our Adventures on Trains books.

David Walliams did a round-up of his favourite books of 2022 and selected Spark, which was a nice surprise.

And Waterstones listed The Arctic Railway Assassin as one of the Best Children’s Books of 2022!

And The Ice Children has already received over 300 positive reviews in just two weeks. It seems to be going down really well with everyone except a few angry climate change deniers. Those are the kind of angry reviews I can live with.

All in all, it’s a lovely way to end the year.

Cover Reveal for the third book in The Twitchers series: CLUTCH

It gives me a huge amount of pleasure to share the cover of the third book in The Twitchers series, CLUTCH. Paddy Donnelly does the artwork for these amazing covers and I am so in love with them. I think this may be my favourite so far.

The book is published in April 2023, and it’s full of the joys of spring and the awful acts of an egg thief.

I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy so I can place it beside my summer story, TWITCH, and my Autumn story, SPARK.

Thanks to Paddy, this quartet of birdwatching adventures will be a thing of wild beauty.

The Ice Children

It gives me a huge amount of pleasure to reveal Elisa Paganelli’s magical cover for The Ice Children.

I wrote this story for Audible. It’s rich with sound. I’m super excited to hear the full cast recording with foley sound, music and all the wonder of audio drama. I even get to play a small part in it myself.

If you’re a subscriber to Audible, then this will be a free Christmas present as part of your subscription. If not you can preorder or purchase the download from 17th of November.

I hope you and all your family enjoy it.

THE BLURB!

At the stroke of midnight on the dawn of December, Jacob Albedo, a six-year-old boy, is found frozen solid in the city park. The doctor says his heart is still beating within the ice, but no one can wake him.

Bianca, his big sister, is determined to discover the cure. She remembers a strange man in a top hat giving her brother a sparkling book the day he was frozen, and sets out to find him.

As more children fall under the ice curse, Bianca knows she’s running out of time. When she gets her hands on the sparkling book, she steps into a magical world she never knew existed – a world of everlasting winter, ruled by its Snow Queen.

But the Snow Queen is melting, and Bianca must find a way to save her – and winter – before the Ice Children’s hearts are lost forever...

Into The Red

I was invited to contribute some words to Into The Red - the BTO’s (British Ornithological Trust) follow-up book to the Red Sixty-Seven.

Into the Red is a collaboration between 70 authors and 70 artists with a single goal: to raise funds to support conservation work aiming to reverse the declines of our most at-risk birds. Contributors include Nick Hayes, Nicola Davies, Jess French, Isabella Tree, Richard Mabey, Amir Khan, David Gray, Jim Moir, Harriet Mead, Brigit Strawbridge, Mackenzie Crook, Megan McCubbin, and many others besides me.

Each writer is allotted an endangered bird to write about and paired with an illustrator. I have the privilege of my words about the Starling sitting beside the incredible work of Ben Rothery.

Profits from the sale of this book are donated to BTO and The Rare Breeding Birds Panel to further their work on Red-listed birds. This book is a work of art. You can get your copy here.

Book launch for The Arctic Railway Assassin

On Thursday the 13th of October, The Arctic Railway Assassin was published and we celebrated in style at Hatchards in Picadilly, London.

This is the sixth and last book in the series for now. Who knows, one day we may create more adventures for Hal and Uncle Nat, but for now the train journey is over.

It was wonderful to be able to finally get together and celebrate all the wonderful people who brought these stories to life and into the hands of eager young readers. Special thanks go to Elisa Paganelli who is the artist behind Hal, and who illustrated every book, doing all the maps and covers too. Jot Davies is the talented actor who voices the audiobooks. Sarah Hughes is our incredible editor. Kirsty McLachlan is our fabulous agent. Really the list goes on and on. Despite what you may hear, making books is a collaborative process.

We hope you’ve enjoyed your Adventures on Trains.

Spark Book Launch

After years of lockdowns and my general aversion to making a fuss, it transpires I haven’t had a book launch celebration since 2017 and Beetle Queen. So last week, I celebrated the launch of Spark, the second book in The Twitchers series and also belatedly celebrated Twitch - which came out in lockdown times.

It was so wonderful to see so many old and new friends and thank all the people at Walker who have championed my birdwatchers and helped create this book with me. I also got to wear my pink suit, which made me extraordinarily happy!

Here is a small gallery of pics from the joyous occasion, which took place in the magnificent Waterstones in Gower Street.

The Highland Falcon Thief is nominated for the 2023 Sakura Medal in Japan

I’m delighted to discover that The Highland Falcon Thief has been nominated for the 2023 Sukura Medal in Japan.

The Sakura Medal program brings together students from international schools across Japan each year to vote for their favourite books. The mission of the Sakura medal award program is to create a community of lifelong readers in international schools in Japan. They aim for a diverse selection of fantastic and engaging books. You can learn more HERE.

Winners of the Sakura Medal are awarded a certificate, a medal, and an original piece of art by a student.

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Cromwell Bottom Open Day 2022

I had the pleasure of attending the Cromwell Bottom nature reserve open day this weekend. I was their guest of honour, because Cromwell Bottom is the inspiration for Aves Wood (from my Twitchers books). If you don’t know it, Cromwell Bottom is a beautiful slice of heaven between Elland and Brighouse in Calderdale, Yorkshire.

I met lots of wonderful nature lovers and eager readers at the open day. I gave a select few a sneak peek of what they can expect in SPARK, the second in The Twitchers series, which comes out this September.

A personal highlight for me was meeting Kevin, the falconer who brought some incredible birds to the event. Here I am pictured with Mozart the falcon and Meg the Bengal eagle owl.

The Highland Falcon Thief wins the FCBG Younger Readers Award.

The Highland Falcon Thief won the Federation of Children’s Book Groups younger readers award! This is one of the most special awards a children’s author can win because it’s voted for by all the children in the book groups. Often prizes and awards are judged by learned adults, but to be awarded a prize by the people you actually write the book for is meaningful to me. It means I’m doing a good job, and that’s the best feeling in the world.

Sadly the award ceremony was cancelled because of the rail strikes, so the party has been postponed until later in the year, when I hope to meet our readers and thank them for this great honour. It’s really made my week.

Find out more about the FCBG awards here.

TWITCH is long-listed for the James Cropper Wainwright Prize 2022

It is with utter delight, I can tell you that TWITCH has been long-listed for the Wainwright Prize for Children’s writing on nature and conservation! This prize is a special one. Every year I read the shortlists and grow.

This means such a lot to me - and I’m humbled to be included. Massive congratulations to all the other long listees!

This long list features writers I respect, admire and - to be honest - fangirl over. I don't know how anyone picks a winner. I certainly couldn't.

You can find out more about the prize and the other books that are long-listed here.

KEY DATES: 

  • The Prize shortlists will be announced on 28th July at Foyles, London.

  • The Prize winners will be announced live on 7th September at the London Wetlands Centre.