scifi – PaperBound Magazine

We chatted to author SF Said about The Children’s Bookshow, a wonderful charity dedicated to spreading the love of books through school activities and author/illustrator visits. Here’s what he had to say …

Could you tell us about The Children’s Bookshow, and how you have been involved with it this year?

As a children’s author, I visit schools up and down the country every week, talking to children about reading and writing and books. The Children’s Bookshow organises brilliant large-scale events, where children from many schools come together in a fantastic venue to see an author, and then we do follow-up workshops in their classrooms. Last year, I did this in Coventry, and it was one of the most exciting and rewarding events I’ve ever done, so this year, I’m delighted to be doing it again in Peterborough!

Give children access to the widest possible range of books, let them choose freely for themselves, and then let them read for pure pleasure, with no strings attached.

What’s the best part of being involved with The Children’s Bookshow?

The Children’s Bookshow gives every single child who participates a free copy of a book written by the author they’re seeing. I think this is beyond wonderful! Normally when you do events, some kids get a book and some don’t. But with The Children’s Bookshow, access to books is equal for everyone. For some children, this will be the first book they’ve ever owned. And we know from the research that reading for pleasure has the biggest positive impact of any factor on children’s life chances, so you can’t put a price on that – it really is life-changing!

Can you tell our readers about your books and what you enjoy most about being an author?

I write the books that I want to read myself! My first book, Varjak Paw, was about a cat who dreams of being a great warrior, and learns a secret martial art known only to cats. My newest book, Tyger, is about a boy, a girl and a tyger who change the world. With each book I write, I want it to be the very best book it can be, so I do everything I can to make it as good as I can. That takes me many years, and many drafts. The thing I enjoy most is hearing responses from readers – it makes all the hard work of writing feel more than worthwhile!

Did you always enjoy reading as a child? Do you have any tips for how to encourage reluctant readers to enjoy books, or stories?

I was very lucky, because everyone in my family loves books and stories, so I grew up surrounded by them. Reading always seemed like fun to me, and I think that’s the best tip I can give you: never make reading seem like hard work, or a punishment! Let it be fun. Give children access to the widest possible range of books, let them choose freely for themselves, and then let them read for pure pleasure, with no strings attached. If you do this, even the most reluctant readers might just surprise you – I’ve seen it happen many times!

How can our readers get involved with The Children’s Bookshow in their own area?

There are several great ways to get involved with The Children’s Bookshow this year. Firstly, I’d encourage everyone to check the website to see if the 2025 tour is coming to a venue near you. If it is, why not tell your teacher or school librarian? They might be able to organise a school trip.

Even if you can’t make it to a live event, you can still be part of the experience by exploring The Children’s Bookshow website. There are fantastic photos and write-ups of all the events, so you can see what happens at the shows and discover new books and authors.

The website is also packed with great resources and activities around the featured books – for example, there are some Tyger resources on there now. At the end of the tour there will be a creative competition that is open to everyone to enter too. Last year’s winner got to meet Michael Rosen!

Can you tell us about your writing life – how it started, and what your current projects are?

Like all writers, I’m really just a reader who took one more step. I wanted to pass on the excitement I felt when I read my favourite books, like Watership Down, or saw my favourite films, like Star Wars. My current project is very much connected to Tyger. It’s not a sequel, or a prequel – it’s a parallel story set in another alternate world. I feel sure it’s going to be my best book yet when it’s done, but it’s not there yet – it takes as long as it takes to make a book as good as you can make it!

What would be your top three writing tips for any young, aspiring writers reading this?

First, forget about writing! Just think of yourself as a reader, and ask yourself, as a reader, if you could have any story to read, what would it be? Whatever the answer (and there are no wrong answers), I think you should then write that story yourself. And finally, keep working on it, draft after draft, until it’s as good as you’d want a story to be, as a reader. That’s really all I do, as a writer – and young readers can do it too, at any age!

Tyger by SF Said is published by David Fickling Books and out now

SF Said

SF Said’s first book, Varjak Paw, won the Nestlé Smarties Prize for Children’s Literature, and was listed by BookTrust as one of the 100 best children’s books of the past 100 years. The Outlaw Varjak Paw won the BBC Blue Peter Book Of The Year; Phoenix represented the UK on the IBBY International Honour Book List; while his most recent book Tyger won Children’s Book Of The Year at the British Book Awards, Children’s Book Of The Year at The Week Junior Book Awards, and the Foyles Children’s Book Of The Year.

Keep up to date with SF Said on his website.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine and blog for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!

Don’t forget you can read with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine – completely free – here.

**We chatted to author Kenneth Oppel about his new dystopian/sci-fi YA novel, Best of All Worlds, and the inspiration behind it.**

**Could you introduce us to your new novel – Best of All Worlds?**

It’s a survival thriller in which Xavier, my teenaged hero, wakes one morning to find that his family’s lakeside cottage has been moved somewhere completely different. When he, his father, and heavily pregnant stepmother go to explore, they find themselves on a farm – hens, two Nubian goats, thriving crops! When they wander further, they realize they’re trapped inside a dome.

I wondered how people would react to finding themselves in an inexplicable situation – what kind of story you’d need to tell yourself to make sense of it…

The book beautifully blends dystopia/science fiction with social commentary and touches on a range of topics that are relevant in the world today – can you talk a little about the inspiration behind the story (without spoilers)?

I wondered how people would react to finding themselves in an inexplicable situation – what kind of story you’d need to tell yourself to make sense of it, what your plan of action would be. I also wrote the novel because I was fed up with conspiracy theorists, science deniers (especially deniers of climate change), and people who mangled the concept of freedom to justify hate, racism, and blatant self-interest. The world is hard enough for adults to navigate; for kids it must be even more bewildering, being deluged with misinformation.

We absolutely loved the worldbuilding in Best of All Worlds. Xavier and his family have almost everything they need to survive in the dome. Did you have to research anything when creating this world?

Oh yes! I learned a lot about sustainable farming, the best kind of milk goats to get (also how to breed, castrate and butcher them). I read about the best time to plant certain crops and harvest them. I went down way to manner research rabbit holes. I also, sadly, had to research various conspiracy theories and the people who perpetrated them.

Without any spoilers, this book keeps you guessing to the end, and we thought the characters and the different ways they reacted to situations were really well crafted. Did you always know the direction this novel was going in? Would you say you are a big plotter? Or did the story develop as you wrote it?

I am a big plotter and planner, and spend a lot of time “daydreaming” the world of the story before I start chapter one. But during the writing there are always delightful surprises. The biggest was probably the decision to introduce another family into the dome, one that had vastly different values than the first.

What came first for you – the concept, the characters, the setting, something else…? And is this different for each book you write?

Usually the concept or setting. Best of All Worlds was definitely concept; books like Airborn and The Boundless were the settings.

What would be your top three writing tips for any aspiring writers out there?

Don’t expect it to be perfect the first time. If you get stuck somewhere in the story, jump to another place. Get as much feedback as possible from trusted readers.

You’ve been writing since you were very young, and you’ve written so many books; has there been a career highlight during this time?

Having a book in outer space. Airborn went to the ISS for six months with Canadian astronaut Robert Thirsk, and I got to meet him afterwards, and see my space book – though sadly they didn’t let me keep it!

Can you tell us about anything else you’re working on?

I have a couple novels vying for attention at the moment. One involves U-Boats, the other a young rock band behaving badly.

Best of All Worlds by Kenneth Oppel is published June 2025 by Guppy Books in the UK (publishing simultaneously in US and Canada)

Kenneth Oppel

Kenneth Oppel is the bestselling author of many books, including Airborn, which won the Governor General’s Award for children’s literature and a Michael L Printz Honor Book Award, and the Silverwing trilogy, which has sold over a million copies worldwide. Some of his other books include Ghostlight, The Boundless, Every Hidden Thing, and Inkling. The Nest and Half Brother both won the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year for Children Award. Kenneth lives in Toronto with his family.

PaperBound Magazine is an online magazine and blog for the young, and the young at heart. We are dedicated to showcasing authors and illustrators for children’s and young adult fiction and we strive to deliver inspiring content, uplifting stories, and top tips for young and aspiring writers yet to burst on to the literary scene.

All our issues are completely free and run by volunteers, however if you would like to support PaperBound and the work we do, you can help us out by buying us a virtual book. We appreciate any support you can give us!