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Malorie Blackman
Who will take over from Malorie Blackman as the new Children’s Laureate and other key children’s books events in 2015. Photograph: Tom Pilston
Who will take over from Malorie Blackman as the new Children’s Laureate and other key children’s books events in 2015. Photograph: Tom Pilston

What's happening in children's books in 2015? A literary calendar

This article is more than 9 years old

Want to know when your favourite author has a new book out? What festivals are lighting up your holidays? When the awards are being dished out? Check out our literary calendar for 2015, the year the new Children’s Laureate is announced

Have we missed anything? Email us at childrens.books@theguardian.com or tell us on Twitter, @GdnChildrensBks. We’ll add to it as more dates become available!

January

19 Guardian children’s book site’s #Gdnbluemonday Twitterchat @Gdnchildrensbks with Matt Haig, Jennifer Niven, Nicola Morgan, Sita Brahmachari, Madeleine Kudrick, Gayle Forman and James Dawson plus Rethink and Young Minds UK.

27 The Costa Book Award book of the year 2014 to be announced.

27 I Was Here by Gayle Forman and Fairest by Marissa Meyer released

February

5 Harry Potter book night - look out for lots of fun stuff on the site.

5 The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black released.

5 North East teenage book awards announced.

7 It’s National Libraries Day!

9 Imagine children’s festival at London’s South Bank centre (till 22) - the festival ideas cloud kids will be taking over the Guardian children’s books site from 14-22 of February so look out for that!

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
It’s Harry Potter Book Night on 5 February.

10 Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard released, a massively anticipated new YA fantasy series

12 The Butterfly Club by Jacqueline Wilson is published (that’s book 101!)

12 Waterstones children’s books prize 2015 shortlist announced.

14 Malorie Blackman edits a collection of stories Love Hurts for Valentine’s Day by everyone who’s anyone in the YA world!

21 Red House Children’s Book Award winner announced.

26 Holly Smales’ fourth book Geek Girl book comes out – and it’s called All That Glitters.

28 UKYA extravaganza in Birmingham. 35 authors, one amazing afternoon is promised!

Submissions welcomed for CLPE Poetry Award 2015 for a book of children’s poetry. Budding young writers, find out more here! Winners announced in July.

March

4 Scottish children’s book award winners announced

5 World Book Day: get your £1 books and join in Storytime Online. The winner of the Blue Peter Book Award announced.

5 New teen novel The Glory by Lauren St John.

5 James Dawson’s Under My Skin comes out.

7-8 Big Write children’s literature festival curated by Anthony Browne at Discover Children’s Story Centre in East London.

10 Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver released

17 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway awards shortlists announced.

17 David Levithan finally publishes his Will Grayson, Will Grayson spin-off, Hold Me Closer: The Tiny Cooper Story

19 Winner of the first ever YA book prize announced. As is the winner of the Worcestershire Teen Book Award.

20 Film of Insurgent, the second in the Divergent series, hits the big screens starring Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort. It’s also the first day of spring and Very Hungry Caterpillar Day is celebrated!

21-29 Oxford Literary festival

24 Half Wild by Sally Green, the second in the Half Life trilogy, released.

24 (to 29) Cardiff Children’s Literature Festival

25 Worcestershire’s Awesomest Book Award winner announced

26 The Astounding Broccoli Boy by Frank Cottrell Boyce is released to the world! (Frank’s first standalone novel since 2008 so we’ve been waiting for this one!)

26 Helen Grant’s new YA Urban Legends is out.

26 Waterstones book prize to be announced.

26 Doombringer by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell released, the latest Edge Chronicle and second in the new Cade trilogy.

27 Seventh Son, the film of Joseph Delaney’s Spook’s series is released in the UK starring Ben Barnes, Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore and Alicia Vikander

31 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award 2015 laureate is announced.

This month is also the 10th anniversary of Looking for Alaska by John Green.

April

Disability in Kid lit autism awareness celebrations all month

2 It’s been 15 years of Anthony Horowitz’s classic Alex Rider, so a re-issues to celebrate.

2 Jandy Nelson’s I’ll Give You the Sun published, from the author who wrote The Sky Is Everywhere, and Piers Torday’s The Wild Beyond is published too – can it match its Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize winning prequel?

2 Hans Christian Anderson’s birthday and International Children’s Books Day

7 Chu’s Day at the Beach by Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Adam Rex.

14-16 London Book Fair (with a Mexican flavour).

21 Young Romantics Prize winner announced.

24 CLPE poetry prize shortlist announced.

24 Yay! YA! A festival celebrating the Teen Reads Scene of Scotland.

May

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas

2 Brighton Festival, starting with a Children’s Parade, around the theme of ‘taking flight’.

7 A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas released.

7 Keren David’s This Is Not a Love Story released.

9 Little Rebels Award winner for Rad Children’s Fiction announced at London Radical Bookfair.

7 Phil Earle’s first middle grade comedy Demolition Dad out (described as Danny The Champion of the World in spandex!)

7 The eighth book in Liz Pichon’s Tom Gates series is publihsed and it’s called” Yes! No (Maybe…)

14 Liz Kessler’s first YA novel Read Me Like a Book – find out why it’s been a long time coming

21 Hay festival begins (to 31)

June

4 Remix by Non Pratt comes out (after Non’s debut Trouble last year)

4 Sophie Kinsella’s first YA novel Finding Audrey published.

4 Wolf Wilder by Katherine Rundell is out. We’ve been waiting for this one after Rooftoppers!

4 Arena 13, the first book in a brand new series by Spook’s author Joseph Delaney, is published in the UK

5 The final in CJ Daugherty’s Night School series is out - and it’s called Night School Endgame.

8 Booktrust’s National Bookstart Week (til 14)

19 Film version of John Green’s Paper Towns released, starring Cara Delevingne

20 Independent Bookshop Week (til 27) and IBW Award, unique in that it is the only award given to an author on behalf of independent bookshops

22 Carnegie and Greenaway winners announced (TBC)

July

2 In Darkling Wood by Emma Carroll out.

2 The Accident Season by Moira Fowley-Doyle, published by Corgi. Touted to be the YA debut everyone will be talking about in 2015.

6 Children’s Book Week, when the Best Book Guide 2015 will be available (til 10)

16 Latitude Festival, Suffolk (til 19). The most family friendly major UK music festival, Latitude is celebrating its 10 year anniversary this year. You can expect a lot from their Kid’s Arena; last year there was a ‘kids who love to read’ section.

16 CLPE poetry prize award winner announced!

17 Film ‘Pan’ released, based on Peter Pan

17-19 it’s Young Adult Lit Con (Yalc) at Comic Con in London - find out who you can see there.

Summer Reading Challenge 2015 launches

August

1 Am I Normal Yet?, the brand new novel by Holly Bourne is out, the first in a new trilogy

15 Edinburgh international literary festival starts (to 31 August)

11 Appleblossom the Possum by Holly Goldberg Sloan released

21 Just So Festival, Cheshire (til 23)

27 The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness is out!

September

Derek Landy’s new series is rumoured to be out this month!

1 James Dawson’s All of the Above comes out (we think James Dawson is coming over all Jacqueline Wilson here and aiming for 100 books! When does the man rest? It’s all for you readers, all for you)

Roald Dahl - can you really imagine a world without Matilda or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Photograph: ITV / Rex Features

3 Rebecca Stead’s new book, Goodbye Stranger, is out – can it beat Liar and Spy? Allan Ahlberg’s brand new picture book illustrated by Bruce Ingman The Hubble Trouble is published as well.

13 Roald Dahl Day

Current estimated release of The Copper Gauntlet, book two of Cassandra Clare and Holly Black’s The Magisterium series.

18 The second book in James Dashner’s Maze Runner series is out in cinemas, The Scorch Trials

25 (to 4 October) Bath Kids Literary Festival

October

1 Holly Webb’s Return to the Secret Garden comes out, returning readers to the world of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic

2 Daniel Radcliffe and James McAvoy star in a film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

2 Cheltenham Literary Festival (till 11)

5 Dyslexia Awareness Week

16 65th anniversary of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

'THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE' - 2005
It’s 65 years since C.S. Lewis published the Chronicles of Narnia. Photograph: c.W. Disney / Rex Features

16 Film version of The Jungle Book released

Estimated release of Six of Crows, the first book in the new Dregs series by Leigh Bardugo.

Highly anticipated new novel from Ketchup Clouds and My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece Annabel Pitcher. It’s going to be called Silence is Goldfish and that’s all we know for now other than it’s being published in October!

November

The whole month is officially National Non-fiction month, to celebrate all things factual!

Mockingjay Part 2 hits the big screens!

16-22 National Short Story week

20 Release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2

26 150 years since the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865).

The winners of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and Guardian Young Critics Award are announced.

December

Father Christmas and his elves are getting ready to deliver your presents. So be good for goodness sake!

What have we missed? Email us at childrens.books@theguardian.com or tell us on Twitter, @GdnChildrensBks. We’ll add to it as more dates become available!

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