Coffee house Caffè Nero has announced the 16-strong shortlist for the inaugural Nero Book Awards, recognising the outstanding books of the past 12... How do you decide what to include and what to leave out? Do you always agree on what should go in the book, as you work collaboratively?

Alex - Football is the perfect hook to get kids reading because it is a subject they want to read about. And it enables us to include education by stealth. By linking everything to football we can show how in the real world everything is connected. Also, we are friends and we wanted to work together! Alex - Having a collaborator works well in writing a book with humour and learning. We tend to write the questions individually and then send them to the other person...we aim to make each other laugh and learn something new. If Ben's response is "Alex that pun is terrible" then I need to try harder! My sometime colleagues from Nutmeg magazine have produced a beautiful, evocative, gritty love-letter to the Scottish game. Daniel’s poetic descriptions and Alan’s alluring photographs capture the attraction of football at all levels, but the book is especially affecting when they visit grounds where the players voices can be heard over the fans on the terracing. Football clubs help them to ferret out fresh snippets. “We find we get better access when we tell them we’re writing for kids because they appreciate what we are trying to do.” Football as an arena for learning Ben - I was once asked to do a floss. I didn't know what it was then (of course I do now) and it did not end well for me!

Ben - We don't always agree and that's the joy of working with someone else. Alex constantly challenges and encourages me to come up with good content, and I (hopefully) do the same with him. We know that the other person can often improve our work, and that helps us be creative in the first place. Dapo Adeola, Tracy Darnton, Joseph Coelho and Chitra Soundar are among the 19 authors and illustrators longlisted for the Inclusive Books for Child...

The winners of the Diverse Book Awards 2023 have been announced, with one winner from each of the four categories announced: Picture book, Children... Ben - We are both parents and are passionate about helping kids develop a love of reading and a curiosity about the world. I would have loved to have read these books as a child, because the only time I was not talking or thinking about football was during lessons. In Football School, every lesson is about football AND you are learning about the world. It's a win-win! Author Anna Kemp introduces The Hollow Hills, the sequel to her dark magical tale, Into Goblyn Wood. Alex - I loved playing football but was never good enough to play for the school team. As a budding mathematician I always saw my best move as the precise geometrical pass.

Research shows that getting authors to visit pays off for schools, helping to boost reading levels, confidence and enjoyment. A recent report by the National Literacy Trust found that twice as many young people could read above the expected level for their age at schools which invited authors to visit, compared with peers at schools that didn’t bother. Season 1 was runner up in the Blue Peter Book Awards. Season 2 was shortlisted in the Lollies, for funniest non-fiction book of the year. SEASON 1: The biology of footballers’ poo, the geography of Brazil and why it produces such skilful players, the psychology of penalty taking, the philosophy of Johan Cruyff, the physics of playing football on Mars, and more. BUY Supporters can easily become obsessed by tactics and formations. Whether the “diamond” trumps the “ false nine” or whether 4-3-3 is just 4-5-1 with lazier forwards? And for those who (pre-Covid) lived for those never-ending pub arguments with no hope of resolution, this book is their bible. Although it stops short of explaining the theory of the ‘67th-minute’ goal. That’s explored in detail in There’s Only One Danny Garvey. How do you go about finding your facts for the Football School books and how do you research all the facts?