Fidan Meikle is a multi-award-winning Azerbaijani-British writer, linguist and translator.

We talk with her about her debut middle-grade novel, My Name Is Samim, which is a powerful novel that follows Samim, a thirteen-year-old boy, as he flees war-torn Afghanistan for a new life in the UK. It highlights the experiences of young refugees and asylum-seekers, and has been a word of mouth success, winning the 2026 Jhalak Children's & YA Prize, the Federation of Children's Book Groups Award, several regional awards and included in the 2026 Read for Empathy Collection.

My Name Is Samim and its companion novel, My Name Is Zayn, are inspired by the real-life stories of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children in the UK.

We also celebrate Patrice Lawrence becoming the new Children's Laureate (Yay!) and the 10th anniversary of her YA book Orangeboy.

We talk about what we are reading over the summer and highlight both the Summer Reading Challenge and the Teacher's Reading Challenge.

And finally we invite you to share your recommendations - tag us in on social media or email us at info@mostlybooktalk.com.

Books we mentioned include:

Always Angel, by Kimberly Whittam

Soul Feeder, by Jennifer Killick, illustrated by Marina Vidal

Big Words by Luke Palmer

Gloam, by Jack McKay, illustrated by Ben Joel Price

Dangerous Influence, Sally Nichols (published Sept 2026)

The Sign of the Raven, by Pippa Dunn

The Shadows of Kensington Gore, by Ross Montgomery - adult (published Oct 2026)

All The Men We've Never Slept With, by Simon James Green and Sarah Counsell - adult (published July 2027)

Faith's First Case, by Jeffrey Boakye - adult (out Feb 2027)

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In this episode we have a feast of middle grade books! We talk first to Kristina Rahim author of the very popular The Doughnut Club, about her second book Max and Ella Stuck Together.

Max has had a tough year starting secondary school. He has been bullied about having two mums and has lost his confidence. He is even finding it hard to enjoy the music that he used to love. He knows he risks letting his friends down if he has stage fright again at their planned performance and the idea that meeting his sperm donor dad might help him find himself again takes hold.

Ella's dad, Hari, was a sperm donor before she was born and she is fine with it. Or at least thought she was before a kid she has never met before turns up and gatecrashes a family weekend. Things haven't been easy for Ella to with friendship changes and her mum working away a lot.

With Max and Ella very much stuck together, will they find a way to be their true selves?

We also catch up with Cath Howe who we have interviewed before about her younger readers series Call the Puffins. She has another middle grade book out - Two is a Crowd.

In this latest book, Hattie’s life is already complicated enough… She’s about to start secondary school, her best friend is going off with someone else and her dad seems to have completely forgotten his promise to give her his office for her own bedroom.

So when her mum’s goddaughter, Seren, arrives and gets special treatment, Hattie feels pushed out.

Could it be that Hattie’s family prefer Seren?

Both are great middle grade/early teen reads and grapple realistically with issues that many teenagers will face, through strong story lines and without being 'issue' books.

We also celebrate John Agard winning the CLiPPA Poetry Prize for an unprecedented third time for his collection The Poetry World of John Agard, illustrated by Shirley Hottier, and point listeners to the recording of the ceremony which is well worth watching.

With thanks to Miah Herford for editing the interviews.

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We talk with author Clare Pollard about her new middle grade book The Othernauts. Based on the story of Jason and the Argonauts, we follow Phoebe who is bored of life on the island where she lives and is desperate to escape. When a ship with Jason and the Argonauts comes into the harbour she acts quickly and joins their quest to find the Golden Fleece. Full of humour and with illustrations by Macha Yao this is a fun and entertaining take on a classic tale.

You can find out more about Clare here. And find her children's books below:

The Othernauts, illustrated Macha Yao

The Untameables, illustrated by Reena Makwana

And her book about picture books can be found here:

Fierce Bad Rabbits - The Tales Behind Children's Picture Books

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