Across all measures, children’s books are now among the most highly regarded areas of UK fiction. The sales figures of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels have reached stratospheric proportions while Jacqueline Wilson has toppled Catherine Cookson, the long time holder of the title, from her top spot as the most borrowed author from the UK libraries. Philip Pullman’s magnificent His Dark Materials trilogy has found readers of all ages laying the cornerstone for the latest craze – the crossover novel.

Behind these three, there is a raft of new authors who are highly promoted, widely sold and much feted. Eoin Colfer found almost immediate success with young readers with Artemis Fowl, an entirely original story of elves, fairies and leprechauns. Anthony Horowitz hit the needs of boys who wanted exciting fiction with his creation of the dashing boy spy, Alex Rider who first appeared in Stormbreaker and is now breathlessly awaited whenever a new novel in which he features is published. Even newer comers such as Zizou Corder with Lion Boy and Michelle Paver with Wolf Brother are finding instant success with children and critics alike.

In other words, children’s books in the UK are enjoying a period of exceptional success. The writing of them is being taken seriously making them part of the whole literary spectrum while the reading of them – the excitement that they are creating in young readers – is influencing the way the old-fashioned recreation of reading is now seen.

No longer under threat from the many new media which surround the young, books and the stories that lie at their heart are now known as the source of stories in many forms from the blockbusting films Shrek, loosely based on a picture book by US author William Steig, and Millions, a new film based on a first-novel of the same name by Frank Cotrell Boyce, to plays such as Private Peaceful, an adaptation of a novel of the same name by the current Children’s Laureate, Michael Morpurgo.

Apart from raising the status of children’s writers and of children as readers, the current success of children’s books has given scope for creative development in terms of writing. With its roots so firmly established, children’s fiction has so far remained largely traditional in structure and form. Fantasy, as a vehicle for posing moral issues within the scope of a fine story, remains one of the strongest traditions and, especially after the success of Harry Potter, it continues to be an area of fiction that is flourishing. Trilogies and ‘sequences’ such as Jonathan Stroud’s Bartimaeus series and Darren Shan’s Cirque Du Freak abound. In extreme contrast, social realism, as exemplified so brilliantly by Jacqueline Wilson but also in many different forms through teenage diaries as in Louise Rennison’s Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging has also been recognised as offering children accessible literature that can help them to make sense of the changing world around them. While the writing of fantasy stays within the traditions of the genre, newer fictions are increasingly experimental reflecting changes in patterns of speech and a wider cultural diversity from which writing is drawn. In other words, the traditional ‘written’ language is embracing elements of the spoken language. First person narratives in an active present are enticing children into fiction by their immediacy while narratives told from several perspectives, a technique used so effectively by Melvin Burgess in Junk are being widely adopted making the telling of stories a collective experience rather than a traditional narrative with a single authorial voice. It’s a technique Bali Rai adopts to good effect in Rani and Sukh, a story of the problems of keeping a cultural while also assimilating effectively that many Asian families are still facing. Kevin Brooks explores different kinds of styles in his books most notably in Kissing the Rain in which the main character has a powerful inner voice which finds expression through the most vernacular prose.

Another feature of contemporary children’s books that has increased their influence and use is their diversity and inclusivity. One of the strengths of contemporary children’s books is their moral and cultural integrity. At a time when the mainstream media is shrill and often prejudiced, children’s books have a proud tradition of extolling virtues of tolerance and understanding. From the personal moral issues to the larger-scale social issues such as racism and sexism, attitudes to refugees, the integration of the physically or mentally impaired into communities, how the elderly and infirm are perceived – all of these are encompassed by children’s books. Current children’s books reflect the need to offer an increasingly diverse readership some kind of identification within fiction. Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy and his most recent Gangsta Rap provide strong and positive stories, especially for Afro-Caribbean boys.

But, whatever the quality of the writing, there must be a receptive audience for it. The importance of children’s books has also been heightened by the number of creative reading initiatives that now abound. Through a number of agencies ranging from government departments, the Arts Council of England and CILIP to consumer organisations such as The Federation of Children’s Book Groups, readers from the very youngest babies through Bookstart to teenagers who might no longer think it ‘cool’ to read, are being drawn into reading by a wealth of enticing initiatives. As befits a culture that is obsessed by celebrities, authors of children’s books are now the focus of wide spread interest and excitement. They tour schools, festivals and event’s encouraging children to feel confident about reading. Among the recent initiatives StoryQuest, a week-long UK-wide tour by Michael Morpurgo with many other authors such as William Nicholson, Eoin Colfer, James Berry and Jacqueline Wilson took authors to meet their audiences. Speaking to crowds of hundreds and culminating with a tumultuous event in the Royal Albert Hall with an audience of over 3,000 children, StoryQuest showed just how eager young readers are to hear their favourite authors. The events also showed how versatile children’s authors are; their performance skills are now in as much demand as their writing skills.