Firefly Blog
An Interview with Nicola Davies
Skrimsli: The tale of a tiger sea-captain and so much more, won the Wales Book of the Year Children’s Award 2024, was shortlisted for the Wainwright...
Luke Palmer on this summer’s violent riots
Luke Palmer is a poet, author and secondary school teacher, living in Wiltshire. His first young adult novel, Grow, (Firefly, 2021) told the story...
Superpowered and other stories – an empathy inspired creative writing project
We are thrilled to share a digital anthology of creative writing from Year 7 students at Cardinal Newman Catholic School. In preparation for Empathy...
Follow Honesty and Alice through Elizabethan London – Day 4: Southwark & London Bridge
This month author Eloise Williams takes us on a tour around the Elizabethan London featured in Honesty and Lies. We'll be visiting the key places...
Follow Honesty and Alice through Elizabethan London – Day 3: The Globe
This month author Eloise Williams takes us on a tour around the Elizabethan London featured in Honesty and Lies. We'll be visiting the key places...
Follow Honesty and Alice through Elizabethan London – Day 2: Greenwich Palace
This month author Eloise Williams takes us on a tour around the Elizabethan London featured in Honesty and Lies. We'll be visiting the key places...
Follow Honesty and Alice through Elizabethan London – Day 1: The Thames
This month author Eloise Williams takes us on a tour around the Elizabethan London featured in Honesty and Lies. We'll be visiting the key places...
Nicola Davies on nature, fossil fuels, and The Song that Sings Us
Nicola Davies, author of The Song that Sings Us As world leaders meet to tackle climate change at COP 27, writer, zoologist and presenter Nicola...
Giveaway competition: Design a kit for the Stupendous Sports team!
Firefly Press have contracted Tim Budgen to illustrate Michael the Amazing Mind-reading Sausage Dog by Terrie Chilvers.
IBW Guest Blog: 48 Hours in Booka Bookshop: the Drama, the Excitement, the Hard Graft
It's Independent Bookshop Week! We're here to celebrate with a fantastic guest post from Carrie, bookseller and owner of Booka Bookshop in Oswestry....
Pre-Order Giveaway for Call Me Lion
We are so excited for you all to read Call Me Lion by the fantastic Camilla Chester. So excited even that we’re doing an exclusive pre-order giveaway!
Nicola Davies on the Characters in The Song that Sings Us
Illustrations by Jackie Morris My novel, The Song that Sings Us has had some lovely things said about it by reviewers and writers. I think my...
Letter from a very small country with big neighbours (no, not Russia)
Luīze Pastore is an award-winning Latvian author whose children's novel, Dog Town, was published by Firefly in 2018. In this new blog...
Libby and the Parisian Puzzle Scavenger Hunt!
Join us as we celebrate the publication of Libby and the Parisian Puzzle by Jo Clarke with a ten-day blog tour. Follow Libby and friends through Paris and discover all about the different locations (and much, much more) in the book!
Keeper of Secrets: Rewilding and nature in fiction
Keeper of Secrets author Sarah J Dodd discusses Emily’s emotional journey and the themes of nature and the wild.
Draw A Monster Competition – with Matt Cherry
Follow our courageous hero monster spotter Edwin Spook as he travels across the globe to save his monster friends from certain doom, stop the...
Crater Lake Evolution – Quiz Answers
Do you know all about Crater Lake? Test your knowledge with this fun quiz with Jennifer Killick! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow92xf5EWKQ...
Anna Mainwaring: ‘Rebel with a Cupcake’ one year on
Rebel with a Cupcake is the book of my heart. One year on from its UK publication, here are a few thoughts on why it matters so much to me and...
Rebel with a Cupcake: Anna’s baking triumphs and disasters
Rebel with a Cupcake author Anna Mainwaring shares her baking triumphs and disasters The lure of baking is always the same. It seems like a...
Firefly Funny Feb: Author Anna Mainwaring talks funny YA
So, let me ask you a question – list all the different genres of YA that come to mind? Fantasy – yes. Contemporary – yes. Dystopian – of...
Firefly Funny February: Author Huw Davies shares his thoughts on funny books
Here are my thoughts on funny writing for children: It's always struck me as odd that funny things can be perceived as less serious than things that...
The Best Christmas Books for Kids
Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. And since we’ve no place to go, let us read, let us read, let us read! Since...
Christmas Presents for Young Book Lovers
Christmas is on the horizon and for parents that often means one thing – Christmas shopping! Some kids may be asking for shiny new toys, others may...
Halloween at home: Ten tricks and treats by Sharon Marie Jones
This year there will be no big Halloween parties or Trick-or-Treating – Boooo-Hoooo! But Halloween at home can be great fun too ... with...
The Best Scary Children’s Books for Halloween
Halloween is one of the best times of the year to be a kid – trick or treating, fancy costumes, plenty of sweeties and some spooky ghost stories....
The Best Cheltenham Children’s Literature Festival Events
The Cheltenham Literature Festival is a much-loved annual event that sees a host of talented writers and illustrators share their much-loved stories...
Roald Dahl Day Activity Ideas
There’s less than a week to go until Roald Dahl Day 2020 and we’re counting down the days here at Firefly Press HQ. Roald Dahl would have been 96...
The Best Edinburgh Book Festival Children’s Events 2020
"Sadly, this is the first year in many that neither I, nor Firefly will be involved directly. So, in spirit it will have to be, which is completely...
Five (and a half) Rules for Writing for Children by Robin Bennett
OUT 18 FEBRUARY 2021 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVoU509O1vw Monster Max and the Bobble Hat of Forgetting author, Robin Bennett, shares his...
2020 Submissions Window Announcement
We are very excited to announce that we will be holding a submissions window
Perfect Place for a Plot: Writing Too Dark to See by Chloë Heuch
Too Dark to See by Chloë Heuch is a beautifully written coming of age YA novel that perfectly captures the intensity of being a...
Firefly Celebrates Empathy Day 2020: Read Connect Act
In recent weeks we’ve all seen how empathy is more important than ever, to help us listen to and understand others, enable us to help those in need,...
The Importance of Baking Cupcakes by Anna Mainwaring
On 2 April my first novel, Rebel with a Cupcake, is being reissued by Firefly Press with a beautiful new cover by Niki Pilkington. It’s about a...
Writing The Darkness for Young Adult Novella Collection Three Strikes
by Lucy Christoper This was a lovely project to be involved with. Here my novella, THE DARKNESS, is part of a collection of three darker-themed...
To celebrate Crater Lake, Leonie looks back at sci-fi with Firefly
by Leonie Lock (Bookseller and Firefly Intern) Join Lance and his friends Katja, Chet and Maksym on their spooky school trip to Crater Lake....
Chanukah and teenage homelessness by Miriam Halahmy
Miriam Halamy It’s the time of year when everyone is thinking about festivals of light which give a warm glow...
On celebrating family and kindness this Christmas by Jennifer Killick
The concept for Alex Sparrow and the Zumbie Apocalypse struck before the first Alex Sparrow book was even published, and I remember, four...
Author Catherine Fisher on writing The Velvet Fox
Writing The Clockwork Crow and The Velvet Fox has been a real pleasure. It was great to write for a younger...
Q & A with Blackfin Sky, Purge and Three Strikes author Kat Ellis
To celebrate the publication of Three Strikes our intern Nia Thorne had a chat with the very lovely Kat...
Q & A with Ant Clancy Games Detective author Ruth Morgan
Read this brilliant blog by Ruth Morgan on why she has written a middle grade fiction about gaming ahead of...