This issue’s cover illustration is from The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan. Thanks to David Fickling Books for their help with this January cover.

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Sally Gardner on The Double Shadow

Sally Gardner on The Double Shadow

Sally Gardner in conversation about her new book The Double Shadow.

Books for Keeps is the UK’s leading, independent children’s book magazine. It was launched in 1980 and ever since has been reviewing hundreds of new children’s books each year and publishing articles on every aspect of writing for children. There are over 12,500 reviews on our new website and more than 2,000 articles including interviews with the top children’s authors and illustrators.

“The best scholars, reviewers, authors and critics write for Books for Keeps,” says editor Rosemary Stones, “We hold a mirror up to the children’s book world and reflects back its output, issues and preoccupations with intelligence, scholarship and wit.”

Book of the week


The Wise Fool: Fables from the Islamic World (8-10 Junior/Middle)

Shahrukh Husain

(Barefoot Books)
64pp, 978-1846862267, RRP £13.05, Hardcover


In recent years fewer anthologies have been published so this new collection of traditional tales is particularly welcome.


Latest Reviews

Out of the Depths (10-14 Middle/Secondary)

Cathy MacPhail
(Bloomsbury Publishing PLC)

224pp, 978-0747599098, RRP £5.99, Paperback


'I saw my teacher in the queue at the supermarket last Christmas. Miss Baxter. I was surprised to see her. She'd been dead for six months.'


read more >

Pinkie Mouse, Where Are You? (5-8 Infant/Junior)

Alison Green
(Alison Green Books)

32pp, 978-1407110684, RRP £6.99, Paperback


This book’s sub-title, ‘A Tale of Hide and Squeak!’ hints at fun to come!


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Little Lion (Under 5s Pre-School/Nursery/Infant)

Lesley Beake
(Frances Lincoln Children's Books)

32pp, 978-1847801890, RRP £11.99, Hardcover


A little boy and his brother Bob are startled when their Dad arrives home with a lion, proclaiming proudly that he’s bought them a dog.


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Books for Keeps Feature

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News
Latest News

A Passion for Picture books

‘Although interest in the art of the picture book seems to have grown greatly in recent years, study of the field has remained polarised in its nature and perceptions,’ claim the authors of an important new book, Children’s Picturebooks: The art of visual storytelling.

Books for Keeps invited co-writers Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles to explain their aim to bring together ideas from the world of literature and education with ideas from the field of art and design.


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BLOOD RED ROAD WINS 2011 COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD

For the second year in succession, a debut novel has won the Costa Children’s Book Award. The 2011 prize went to Jason Wallace for his novel Out of Shadows; this year’s prize has gone to Moira Young for her book Blood Red Road.


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Behind the Bookshelf

BtB logoBehind the Bookshelf is a new way of bringing authors into the classroom. Find out more here including a special offer for Books for Keeps readers.


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