She went on to complete a Masters Degree in Women's Studies at Oxford University, where an idea for her thesis became the inspiration for her first novel, Follow Me Down. After her daughter, Tilly, was born she began a degree in Education but switched to English after suffering a panic attack while attempting to teach maths to year six. Julie Hearn used to be a tabloid journalist but much prefers writing novels because she is less likely to be sued nowadays for making things up. Click here to see the books she selected. Julie Hearn was our Guest Editor in August 2011. 20+ Brilliant Books Featuring Unforgettable Deaf or Hard of Hearing Characters for Deaf Awareness Week.Celebrate King Charles III and his Coronation with these Majestic Children's Books.New imprint, Pineapple Lane, launches with seven Ukrainian picture books.Sally Anne Garland and The Art of the Every Day.

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All well enough, but as Tom’s twelfth birthday approaches, he suddenly finds adventure thrust upon him as his brothers, all incidentally named Jack, have gone missing. Set in and around the Land of Stories, Tom is the youngest of seven brothers who embark upon fairy-tale adventures suggested to them by the ruling elite: the Story Bureau. The Secret History of Tom Trueheart by Ian Beck is a delightful book, and one with a wide potential audience, for here are characters that everyone will feel they know.

How appropriate, then, that for his first foray into writing for older children he brings something of that younger world with him. Ian Beck is rightly described as something of a national treasure his illustrations for picture books and nursery rhymes enhance many a child’s first bookshelf. The sheer variety of children’s books currently on offer is a wonderful thing, and five books this spring exemplify this diversity – from the ‘never-when’ of fairy tale, to the gutters and boudoirs of nineteenth-century London, to the darkest episodes of the Second World War and finally the Thirties youth of our favourite fictional spy.

Ivy by Julie Hearn