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Books for Keeps 111 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 111 - July 1998

Cover Story
This issue’s cover is from The Hutchinson Treasury of Children’s Poetry (cover illustration by Peter Weevers). Edited by Alison Sage (who also edited The Hutchinson Treasury of Children’s Literature), this sumptuous anthology is loosely divided into four sections corresponding to age starting with nursery rhymes and first poems through to poems for older children and classic poetry. Poems from such modern poets as Roger McGough, Ted Hughes, Wendy Cope and Maya Angelou sit alongside poems by Longfellow, Robert Louis Stevenson, Shelley and Shakespeare. The anthology is illustrated in full colour and black and white. Newly commissioned illustrations from, for example, Quentin Blake, Shirley Hughes and Nicola Bayley are included alongside illustrations by Randolph Caldecott, Jessie Willcox Smith and Kate Greenaway. With such a comprehensive range of poems for 2-11 year olds and upwards, this is a wonderful family book.

BfK No. 111 Articles

Editorial – July 1998

News and comment from the Editor.
Keep on Walking!

Julia Eccleshare on 30 years of Rosie's Walk.
Poetry Power

Helen Taylor assesses recent poetry publishing for children.
Breaking Down the Barriers

Kevin Berry on first languages and poetry.
King of the Sky

Gwynneth Bailey on using poetry for The Literacy Hour.
Finding Their Own Voices

John Lynch on children writing poetry.
Authorgraph No.111: Benjamin Zephaniah

Benjamin Zephaniah interviewed by Errol Lloyd.
BfK Briefing – July 1998

News * Awards * Best Seller Chart * Letters to the Editor

Useful Organisations No.1: The Poetry Society

Nurturing and promoting poets and poetry.
What Should Win the Carnegie and Greenaway Medals?

BfK asks children's literature experts and young readers to nominate their winners.
Good Reads: Havelock Primary School

Reviews from pupils of Havelock Primary School, Southall, Middlesex.
I Wish I’d Written… Harry and the Wrinklies

Anne Fine chooses Alan Temperley's Harry and the Wrinklies.
Classics in Short No.10: A Child’s Garden of Verses

Helen Levene on Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses.

Editor's Choice

Witnesses to War
Michael Leapman
(Puffin)
5

Anne Frank is one of eight young people featured in this collection of war-time biographies whose lives were irrevocably disrupted by Nazism. Anne Frank was to die in Bergen-Belsen, and because we feel we know her so well via her diary, come to...

read more

New Talent

Skellig
David Almond
(Hodder Children's Books)
5

A move to a new house coincides for Michael with the anguish of bearing his new baby sister's medical problems. Will she live? As the baby fights for her life in a hospital incubator, Michael learns, with the help of his new friend Mina, to look...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 111

  • Under 5s
  • Ages 5-8
  • Ages 8-10
  • Ages 10-14
  • Books About Children's Books

Under 5s

  • Big Silver Spaceship
    Ken Wilson-Max
    5

  • The Long Nosed Pig
    Keith Faulkner
    5

  • Our Puppy's Holiday
    Ruth Brown
    4

  • Baby Duck and the New Eyeglasses
    Amy Hest
    4

  • Pippo Gets Lost; Tom and Pippo's Day; Tom and Pippo Go for a Walk; Tom and Pippo Read a Story
    Helen Oxenbury
    4

  • A Child's Treasury of Irish Rhymes
    Alice Taylor
    3

  • Daisy is a Mummy
    Lisa Kopper
    3

  • Stellaluna
    Janell Cannon
    2

Ages 5-8

  • Whistling Jack
    Linda Newbery
    5

  • Clown
    Quentin Blake
    5

  • Boys Are Us; Dear Alien
    Shoo Rayner
    4

  • Harry on Holiday; A Hiccup on the High Seas; Rattle and Hum in Double Trouble; Bing Bang Boogie, It's a Boy Scout
    Chris Powling
    Scoular Anderson
    4

  • Forest Tales from Far and Wide; Farmyard Tales from Far and Wide
    4

  • Sound City
    Sarah Hayes
    4

  • How to Live Forever
    Colin Thompson
    4

  • Scratch 'n' Sniff
    Gus Clarke
    4

  • Thud!
    Nick Butterworth
    4

  • Children Don't Divorce; No More Bullying!
    Rosemary Stones
    4

  • Gita and Goldie; Timmy and Tiger
    Mary Hooper
    3

  • "Og Fo" says the Space Bug; Pets Just Want to Have Fun!; "I don't Like Space Glop"; "Do I Look Funny to You?"
    Nicola Matthews
    3

  • Off to School
    3

  • Winnie the Witch; The Fish Who Could Wish
    Valerie Thomas
    3

  • Dad's Dodgy Lodger; Talking Pictures
    Philip Wooderson
    Dee Shulman
    2

Ages 8-10

  • My Grandfather is a Magician
    Ifeoma Onyefulu
    5

  • Robln of Sherwood
    Michael Morpurgo
    5

  • Willa and Old Miss Annie
    Berlie Doherty
    5

  • A Tudor Warship; A Victorian Mill
    Brian Moses
    4

  • Carmine's Story
    Arlene Schulman
    4

  • Tom's Private War
    Robert Leeson
    4

  • How Castles Were Built
    Peter Hicks
    3

  • Ruby Red: Tales from the Weedwater
    Henrietta Branford
    3

Ages 10-14

  • My Left Foot
    Christy Brown
    5

  • MapHead 2
    Lesley Howarth
    5

  • Skellig
    David Almond
    5

  • Witnesses to War
    Michael Leapman
    5

  • Dealing with Eating Disorders; Sex; Periods
    Kate Haycock
    4

  • Religion; Women's Rights
    Anita Ganeri
    4

  • Child of the May
    Theresa Tomlinson
    4

  • Clues from Names
    Gillian Clegg
    4

  • Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
    J K Rowling
    4

  • Love Lessons
    David Belbin
    3

  • Family Secrets
    Brian Keaney
    3

  • Crisis in Central Africa; The Berlin Wall
    Charles Freeman
    3

  • The Element Illustrated Encyclopedia of Mind, Body, Spirit and Earth; The Unexplained Psychic Powers
    Joanna Crosse
    2

  • The Empty Frame
    Ann Pilling
    2

  • Abomination
    Robert Swindells
    2

Books About Children's Books

  • A Year with Poetry
    5

  • From the Garden to the Street: Three Hundred Years of Poetry for Children
    Morag Styles
    5

BfK 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.

read more...
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.

Set in a dystopian future world, Blood Red Road tells the story of 18-year-old Saba, a tough young woman who embarks on an epic quest to rescue her twin brother when he is kidnapped by four mysterious horsemen.

read more...
Behind the Bookshelf

A new way of bringing authors into the classroom – and a special competition for Books for Keeps readers.

read more...
2011 Educational Writers’ Award Winner Announced

The winner of the 2011 Educational Writers’ Award is Moon: Apollo 11 and Beyond…The Ultimate Guide to Our Nearest Neighbour by Stewart Ross.

The Educational Writers’ Award was established in 2008 by ALCS and The Society of Authors to celebrate educational writing that inspires creativity and encourages students to read widely and build up their understanding of a subject beyond the requirements of exam specifications.

read more...
Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize winner announced

The winner of the 2011 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize is How the World Works, an interactive opus that uses illustrations, pop ups, flaps and more to make children think about the impact of human actions on our environment, while encouraging respect for the natural world.

read more...
Muslim Writers Awards 2011

Na'ima B Robert's Far from Home (Frances Lincoln) has won the Published Children's Book category of the Muslim Writers Awards.

The Awards were held at the Globe Theatre on Tuesday 22nd November and acknowledged dramatists and young journalists as well as authors.

read more...
2011 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize

After a two year gap when, due to funding issues it was not awarded, The Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2011 will be awarded on Thursday 1st December, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.

The prize celebrates the books that best communicate science to young people aged up to 14 and there are six books on the shortlist. They are:

The Icky Sticky Blood and Snot Book by Steve Alton and Nick Sharratt (Bodley Head)

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Liz Pichon and Peter Bently: Roald Dahl Funny Prize Winners

Winners Roald Dahl Prize 2011 2Tuesday 8th November saw the fourth annual Roald Dahl Funny Prize ceremony, which again took place at the Unicorn Theatre. This year Chair, and instigator of the prize, Michael Rosen was joined on the judging panel by author and broadcaster Grace Dent, illustrator Tony Ross, Horrid Henry creator Francesca Simon and journalist/scriptwriter Danny Wallace.

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PIRATE CATS AND DOODLING SCHOOLBOY WIN THE 2011 ROALD DAHL FUNNY BOOK PRIZE

Roald Dahl Winners 2011Peter Bently and Liz Pichon have been announced as winners of the 2011 Roald Dahl Funny Book Prize. 

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FIRST SLA INFORMATION BOOK AWARD: WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Adrian Dingle’s book How to make a Universe with 92 Ingredients (Scholastic) and The Life and Times of William Shakespeare by Kirsten McDermott and Ari Berk (Templar) were announced winners of the first SLA Information Book Award at a celebration event in London last night, Wednesday 2nd November.

read more...
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