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Books for Keeps 121 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 121 - March 2000

Cover Story
This issue's cover is from Colin McNaughton's Hmm... Colin McNaughton discusses the thinking behind his book in Windows into Illustration. Thanks to Collins Children's Books for their help in producing this cover.

BfK No. 121 Articles

Editorial - March 2000

News and comment from the Editor.
Giving a Free Rein to Invention

Joanna Carey on new picture books.
Children's Book Illustration: A Separate Story?

Quentin Blake on the history of children's books in illustration.
Windows into Illustration: Colin McNaughton

Colin McNaughton on his picture book, Hmm...
Authorgraph No.121: Alison Uttley

Alison Uttley by Denis Judd.
Speech and the Silencing of Speech

Salman Rushdie interviewed by Farrukh Dhondy about writing for children.
BfK Briefing - March 2000

News * Letters to the Editor * Events * Obituary
I Wish I’d Written… The Last Giants

Michael Morpurgo chooses Francois Place's The Last Giants.
Good Reads: Trafalgar Junior School, Twickenham

Reviews from pupils of Trafalgar Junior School, Twickenham.
Classics in Short No.20: The Squirrel, the Hare and the Little Grey Rabbit

Brian Alderson on Alison Uttley's The Squirrel, the Hare and the Little Grey Rabbit.

Editor's Choice

Jenny Angel
Margaret Wild
(Viking Children's Books)
4

Jenny believes herself to be a guardian angel who can keep her dying younger brother safe if she is vigilant enough. She wills Davy to live, working hard to bring the world to him as he gradually slips farther away. But magical thinking cannot...

read more

New Talent

Running Out of Time
Margaret Peterson Haddix
(Bodley Head Children's Books)
3

A diptheria outbreak threatens the small rural community of Clifton and now Jessie's little sister, Katie, has fallen ill. There is no cure for diptheria in 1840 but is it really 1840? Desperate to save Katie, Jessie's mum finally tells Jessie...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 121

  • Under 5s
  • Ages 5-8
  • Ages 8-10
  • Ages 10-14

Under 5s

  • The Little Red Engine and the Rocket; The Little Red Engine Goes to Town; The Story of the Little Red Engine
    Diana Ross
    3

  • Growing up in South Africa; Toads and Their Young
    Siphe Neate
    Bobbie Neate
    3

Ages 5-8

  • Jenny Angel
    Margaret Wild
    4

  • Peg; Clumsy Clumps and the Baby Moon; Happy Sad; Promise You Won’t be Cross
    Maddie Stewart
    3

Ages 8-10

  • Oxford First Book of Art
    Gillian Wolfe
    5

  • Britannia, 100 Great Stories from British History
    Geraldine McCaughrean
    5

  • Marguerite Makes a Book
    Bruce Robertson
    5

  • Read Me 2: A Poem for Every Day of the Year
    5

  • Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
    J K Rowling
    5

  • Cliffhanger
    Jacqueline Wilson
    5

  • Atlas in the Round
    Keith Lye
    Alastair Campbell
    4

  • In a Children's Hospital
    Deborah Fox
    4

  • Reference Book of Water and Weather; Tudor Homes
    Bobbie Neate
    3

  • Why the Whales Came
    Michael Morpurgo
    3

  • Well Done, The Naughtiest Girl!; The Naughtiest Girl Keeps a Secret; The Naughtiest Girl Helps a Friend; The Naughtiest Girl Saves the Day; Here’s The Naughtiest Girl!; The Naughtiest Girl is a Monitor; The Naughtiest Girl Again; The Naughtiest Girl in

    Anne Digby
    3

  • The Big Book of Little Poems
    Roger McGough
    Gyles Brandreth
    1

  • Oxford First Book of Science
    Nina Morgan
    1

Ages 10-14

  • Chinese Cinderella
    Adeline Yen Mah
    5

  • Telling Tales
    Susan Price
    5

  • Exploring World Art
    Andrea Belloli
    5

  • Absolutely Best Cross-Sections Book Ever
    Stephen Biesty
    Richard Platt
    5

  • King of Shadows
    Susan Cooper
    5

  • Kit's Wilderness; Heaven Eyes
    David Almond
    4

  • Family Tree Stories about the family
    4

  • Frenchtown Summer
    Robert Cormier
    4

  • The Stones are Hatching
    Geraldine McCaughrean
    4

  • Sheep Don't Go to School: Mad and Magical Children's Poetry
    4

  • The DK Space Encyclopedia
    Heather Couper
    Nigel Henbest
    4

  • Vinegar Street
    Philip Ridley
    4

  • The Perfect Love Story?
    3

  • Blind Beauty
    K M Peyton
    3

  • The Kidnapping of Suzie Q
    Martin Waddell
    3

  • The Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science
    Corinne Stockley
    Chris Oxlade
    Jane Wertheim
    3

  • The Candle House
    Pauline Fisk
    3

  • Paulina
    Lesley Howarth
    3

  • Running Out of Time
    Margaret Peterson Haddix
    3

  • The Usborne Encyclopedia of Planet Earth
    Anna Claybourne
    Gillian Doherty
    Rebecca Treays
    2

BfK News

THE LITTLE REBELS AWARD SHORTLIST 2019

Little Rebels prize logoThe shortlist for the 2019 Little Rebels Award has been announced. Seven books have made the list with war and conflict recurring themes.

read more...
SHORTLISTS FOR 2019 CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS

The shortlists for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced. Selected by volunteer Youth Librarians from longlists of 20 books per medal, there are eight on each shortlist.

Alongside previously shortlisted authors and illustrators, there are newcomers on each shortlist, and as the poetry boom for young readers continues, three verse novels make the Carnegie shortlist by US authors Elizabeth Acevedo, Kwame Alexander and Jason Reynolds.

The 2019 shortlists are as follows:

read more...
BLUE PETER BOOK AWARD WINNERS 2019

The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q Raúf and The Colours of History by Clive Gifford, illustrated by Marc-Etienne Peintre, have been revealed as the 2019 Blue Peter Book Award winners.

read more...
LONGLISTS FOR 2019 CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS ANNOUNCED

The longlists for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced. Members of YLG have selected 20 books for each list from no less than 254 nominations.

read more...
WINNERS OF THE LAUGH OUT LOUD BOOK AWARDS 2019

Funny Women win the Lollies!

Lollies winners 2019

Elys Dolan, Emer Stamp and Tom Gates creator Liz Pichon have been named the winners of the 2019 Laugh Out Loud Awards, or Lollies.

read more...
HILARY MCKAY WINS COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD WITH ‘PERFECT’ NOVEL

Hilary McKay has won the Costa Children’s Book Award for the second time for The Skylarks’ War, a story following the loves and losses of a family growing up against the backdrop of World War One. The judges described The Skylarks’ War as ‘as perfect a novel as you could ever want to read’. She receives £5,000 and her book is now eligible for the ultimate prize - the 2018 Costa Book of the Year.

read more...
FAR FROM HOME WINS THE 2018 EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD

The winner of the 2018 Educational Writers’ Award, the UK’s sole award for creative educational writing, is Far From Home: Refugees and Migrants Fleeing War, Persecution and Poverty by Cath Senker, a topical and richly illustrated book which sensitively examines the root causes of mass migrations of people in the 21st century.

Cath Senker wins EWA 2018

read more...
SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2018 EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD

Canvases, Codes, Clean Water & Empathy

read more...
COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD 2018: SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

Costa have announced the shortlist for the 2018 Costa Children’s Book Award. In a record year for submissions, four novels have made it onto a strong shortlist.

read more...
SHORTLISTS ANNOUNCED FOR BLUE PETER BOOK AWARDS

The shortlists have been announced for the 2019 Blue Peter Book Awards. They are:

Best book with facts

The Element in the Room by Mike Barfield and illustrated by Lauren Humphry, Laurence King Publishing

The Colours of History by Clive Gifford and Marc-Etienne Peintre, QED Publishing

Professor Astro Cat's Human Body Odyssey by Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman, Flying Eye Books

read more...
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