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Books for Keeps 122 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 122 - May 2000

Cover Story
This issue’s cover shows Jane Simmons’ popular character, Daisy, and her baby brother Pip. Two Daisy books with their ‘dynamic yet affectionate pictures’ full of painterly exuberance are reviewed in this issue. Thanks to Orchard Books for their help in producing this May cover.

BfK No. 122 Articles

Editorial - May 2000

News and comment from the Editor.
Books for Children with a Mathematical Focus

Sheila Ebbutt assesses recent titles.
Authorgraph No.122: Debi Gliori

Debi Gliori interviewed by Lindsey Fraser.
On the Use of Photography in Illustration

P J Lynch discusses the techniques and the issues.
Are Traditional Stories Sexist?

Rosalind Kerven looks at the role of women in traditional tales.
BfK Briefing - May 2000

News * Events * Obituaries * Awards * Letters to the Editor
Useful Organisations No.10: The Puffin Book Club

Book club aiming to make children into readers.
I Wish I’d Written… Meeting Midnight

Gene Kemp on Carol Ann Duffy’s poem collection, Meeting Midnight.
Good Reads: Aberdare Girls’ School

Reviews from pupils of Aberdare Girls' School.
Classics in Short No.21: Clever Bill

Brian Alderson on William Nicholson's Clever Bill.

Editor's Choice

Girl in Red
Gaye Hiçyilmaz
(Orion Childrens)
5

The sustained tabloid campaign against asylum seekers and the vitriol expressed, in particular, against Gypsies from Romania make Hicyilmaz's new novel eerily topical. Teenager Frankie lives in a run down council block near the sea at Dover....

read more

New Talent

The Wind Singer
William Nicholson
(Mammoth)
3

In the walled city of Aramath, the population is controlled by a rigid system of public examinations. Each family member is tested and accommodation and colour coded clothing provided according to which band their results fit into. The Hath...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 122

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

Under 5s

  • Little Bear's Grandad
    Nigel Gray
    4

  • Daisy and the Egg; Daisy and the Beastie
    Jane Simmons
    4

  • Floppy/Llip
    Guido Van Genechten
    3

  • Pete and Polo's Nursery School Adventure
    Adrian Reynolds
    3

  • Who's Next?
    Sally Grindley
    3

  • Teddy Bear Nursery Rhymes; Teddy Bear ABC
    Prue Theobalds
    3

  • Baby Tiger
    Susan Hellard
    3

  • The Wheels on the Bus
    Penny Dann
    3

  • Penguin goes to Playschool; Parrot goes to Playschool
    Jeanne Willis
    2

Ages 5-8

  • Who Made Me?
    Shirley Tulloch
    5

  • Jack's Big Race
    Michael Foreman
    5

  • Unicorns! Unicorns!
    Geraldine McCaughrean
    5

  • Rumpelstiltskin and other Grimm Tales
    Carol Ann Duffy
    5

  • Tales from the Old World
    Kevin Crossley-Holland
    5

  • Josie Smith in Spring
    Magdalen Nabb
    4

  • The Seven Ravens
    Brian Wildsmith
    4

  • We're Going on a Bear Hunt; Little Rabbit Foo Foo
    4

  • Freaky Tales from Far and Wide; Moon Tales
    Hugh Lupton
    4

  • Please, Mr Crocodile!
    4

  • School; Pirates; Witches
    Colin Hawkins
    Jacqui Hawkins
    3

  • Just in Time - A tell-the-time story book
    Kathryn Cave
    3

  • There's More to a Banana
    Rita Phillips Mitchell
    3

  • The Leprechaun Who Wished He Wasn't
    Siobhan Parkinson
    3

  • I Spy, Pancakes and Pies; Bad Boys and Naughty Girls; Silly Sons and Dozy Daughters; Ugly Dogs and Slimy Frogs; Greedy Guts and Belly Busters; If Wishes Were Fishes
    3

  • Samira's Eid
    Nasreen Aktar
    3

  • Kitten Crowd/Puppy Puzzle/Hamster Hotel/Chick Challenge
    Lucy Daniels
    2

  • Esio Trot
    Roald Dahl
    1

Ages 8-10

  • Captain Ming and the Mermaid; Imogen and the Ark
    William Mayne
    5

  • Dare to be Different
    Elana Bergin
    Malorie Blackman
    Fiona Waters
    Henrietta Branford
    5

  • Donkey-ride to Disaster; Madness in the Mountains
    Kaye Umansky
    5

  • Electricity; Levers; Gears; Wind-ups
    Chris Ollerenshaw
    Pat Triggs
    4

  • Arthur, High King of Britain
    Michael Morpurgo
    4

  • The Roundhill
    Dick King-Smith
    4

  • The Wind Singer
    William Nicholson
    3

  • Let's Talk About Where Babies Come From
    Robie H Harris
    3

  • Shopping in Grandma's Day; Grandma's War
    Rebecca Hunter
    Angela Davies
    3

  • Blackbird Has Spoken
    3

  • Never Stare at a Grizzly Bear: Animal Poems; A Sea Creature Ate My Teacher: Fishy Poems; Let's Twist Again: More Tongue Twisters and Tonsil Twizzlers
    Nick Toczek
    2

  • Why Are You Calling Me a Barbarian?
    Birgitta Petrén
    Elisabetta Putini
    Mary Becker
    2

  • The Egg Thieves
    Joan Lingard
    2

  • All the Things I See: Selected Poems for Children; The Poet's House
    Jenny Joseph
    1

Ages 10-14

  • Truth or Dare
    Celia Rees
    5

  • Girl in Red
    Gaye Hiçyilmaz
    5

  • Shadow of the Minotaur
    Alan Gibbons
    4

  • Dear Del
    Alison Prince
    4

  • Girls Out Late
    Jacqueline Wilson
    4

  • What Every Girl Should Know: An A-Z of Health - from Allergies to Zits!
    Dr David Bull
    3

  • What They Don't Tell You About Vikings ¦ Ancient Greeks ¦ Ancient Egyptians ¦ Romans in Britain ¦ Anglo-Saxons ¦ World War II
    Bob Fowke
    3

  • Ship of Ghosts ¦ Danny's Great Goal ¦ Nicked! ¦ Eddie and the Zedlines
    Nigel Hinton
    3

  • Maddocks, or how to discover America
    Peter Oram
    3

  • Wanted - One Body! ¦ Forbidden Game ¦ Runaway Train
    Maggie Pearson
    3

  • Winners and Losers ¦ The Cinderella Principle ¦ Guard Dog ¦ The Haunted Surfboard

    Trevor Wadlow
    3

  • Potty Politics
    Terry Deary
    3

  • The Art of Science
    Martin Jenkins
    2

  • Red Hugh
    Deborah Lisson
    2

  • Cirque du Freak
    Darren Shan
    2

Ages 14+

  • Dirty Planet: The Friends of the Earth Guide to Pollution and What You Can Do About it
    Caroline Clayton
    5

  • Dosh
    Robert Swindells
    4

  • The Raging Quiet
    Sherryl Jordan
    4

  • Future Eden
    Colin Thompson
    4

  • Two Moons
    Martha Brooks
    4

  • The Boy-free Zone
    Veronica Bennett
    4

BfK News

THE YEAR'S BEST POETRY FOR CHILDREN: CLiPPA 2019 SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) has announced the 2019 shortlist for their poetry award, CLiPPA (The Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award). Children’s poetry is booming and there were a record number of entries for the CLiPPA, the only award for children’s poetry.

read more...
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...
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