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Books for Keeps 124 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 124 - September 2000

Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration by Fangorn is taken from Brian Jacques’ Lord Brocktree (Hutchinson, 0 09 176877 2, £12.99), the thirteenth title in the internationally best-selling Redwall series. Salamandastron, the ancestral home of the Badger Lords, is under threat from Ungatt Trunn, an enemy whose power would seem to be absolute and whose evil knows no bounds. The only hope for survival is the badger Lord Brocktree who is drawn to the fortress by an undeniable sense of destiny. Brian Jacques' masterful storytelling as always spins a web of high adventure that will enthral the reader from the first page to the last. Thanks to Hutchinson Children’s Books for their help in producing this September cover.

BfK No. 124 Articles

Editorial - September 2000

News and comment from the Editor.
Imaginative Time Travel: The Greeks and Romans

Tony Spawforth on recent books about the ancient world.
Dads ’n’ Lads Reading Together

Anne Marley on an innovative way to encourage reading.
Authorgraph No.124: Robert Swindells

Robert Swindells interviewed by David Bennett.
“I Thought I’d Start with Something Easy”

Five authors who write for adults and children discuss the differences.
BfK Briefing - September 2000

News * Awards * Publications * Events * Letters to the Editor
Useful Organisations No.11: Centre for Language in Primary Education

Enjoys a national and international reputation for its work in language, literacy and assessment.
I Wish I’d Written... Cowboy Baby

Alan Durant chooses Sue Heap's Cowboy Baby.
Good Reads: All Hallows Catholic School

Reviews from pupils of All Hallows Catholic School, Farnham, Surrey.
Classic in Short No.23: Elidor

Brian Alderson on Alan Garner's Elidor.

Editor's Choice

Husherbye
John Burningham
(Jonathan Cape Ltd)
5

Sung all round the world to lull children to sleep, lullabies, as Marina Warner points out in her seminal study of the cultural ways we have to keep the bogies at bay (No Go the Bogeyman, Chatto & Windus), 'imply two...

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New Talent

The Lemonade Genie
Adrian Boote
(Orchard Books)
4

Liberally illustrated with Archbold's humorously wild and scratchy line drawings, this hilarious school story is pure slapstick from beginning to end. Colin Grumbly is a walking disaster zone and the least popular boy in class. When he pulls the...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 124

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

Under 5s

  • Husherbye
    John Burningham
    5

  • Monster Postman
    Jonathan Allen
    5

  • Are you a Snail?
    Judy Allen
    Tudor Humphries
    4

  • Daisy and the Egg
    Jane Simmons
    4

  • I will not ever Never eat a tomato
    Lauren Child
    4

  • The Merchant Enticed by the Pearl of Great Price
    Mary Joslin
    4

  • You're All Animals
    Nicholas Allan
    4

  • Rock-a-Doodle-Do!
    Michael Foreman
    4

  • Rosie and Tortoise
    Margaret Wild
    4

  • Good Girl, Gracie Growler!
    Hilda Offen
    4

  • Flashing Fire Engines; Terrific Trains
    Tony Mitton
    Ant Parker
    3

  • Alone in the Woods
    Ian Beck
    3

  • Little Dragon
    Riske Lemmens
    3

  • A Treasury of Five-Minute Stories
    Fiona Waters
    3

  • Frog is a Hero; Frog and the Wide World; Frog is Frog; Frog and the Stranger
    Max Velthuijs
    3

  • Wacky Wild Animals
    Brian Moses
    3

  • Hey, Tabby Cat!; Here Comes Tabby Cat; Winnie Plays Ball; Winnie All Day Long; Monkey Business; Monkey Trouble
    2

  • Little Boo!; Little Suddenly!
    Colin McNaughton
    2

  • Going Shopping
    Jo Lodge
    2

Ages 5-8

  • When the World Began: Stories collected in Ethiopia
    Elizabeth Laird
    5

  • River Story
    Meredith Hooper
    5

  • Farm Boy
    Michael Morpurgo
    4

  • The Explorer's Book of Dinosaurs
    Dr Ian Jenkins
    4

  • Tommy Trouble
    Stephen Potts
    4

  • The Lemonade Genie
    Adrian Boote
    4

  • Someone I Like
    4

  • Stories from the Caribbean
    Petronella Breinburg
    4

  • Mama God, Papa God - A Caribbean Tale
    Richardo Keens-Douglas
    4

  • Big Brother, Little Sister
    Papa Oyibo
    4

  • Alison and the Bully Monsters
    Jac Jones
    4

  • Peas in a Pod
    Adèle Geras
    3

  • Celebrating; Carrying; Smiling; Eating
    Gwenyth Swain
    3

  • Horrid Henry's Nits
    Francesca Simon
    3

  • Rainy Day
    Emma Haughton
    2

Ages 8-10

  • The Dare Game
    Jacqueline Wilson
    4

  • Make a Book!
    Vivien Frank
    Deborah Jaffe
    4

  • Swine Lake
    James Marshall
    4

  • The Wonders of Maths; The Secrets of Science; Mysteries of the Human Body; How Things Work
    Barbara Allen
    Terry Deary
    3

  • William Shakespeare and the Globe
    Aliki
    3

  • Dig and Sow!; Splish! Splosh!
    Janice Lobb
    3

  • Amber's Secret
    Ann Pilling
    3

  • The Famous Adventures of Jack
    Berlie Doherty
    3

  • The Flood Tales
    Richard Monte
    3

  • Dad Alert!
    Malaika Rose Stanley
    3

  • Animal Crackers
    Narinder Dhami
    3

  • My Best Book of Fossils, Rocks and Minerals
    Chris Pellant
    2

  • Irish Legends
    Margaret Simpson
    2

Ages 10-14

  • Fire, Bed and Bone
    Henrietta Branford
    5

  • The Secret Life of Sally Tomato
    Jean Ure
    5

  • I am David
    Anne Holm
    5

  • Secrets in the Fire
    Henning Mankell
    5

  • Troy
    Adèle Geras
    5

  • Out of Nowhere
    Gerard Whelan
    4

  • A Twist in Time
    Jean Ure
    4

  • Dreaming in Black & White
    Reinhardt Jung
    4

  • The Children's Dinosaur Encyclopedia
    Jinny Johnson
    4

  • Greg
    Dirk Walbrecker
    4

  • The Girl Who Knew
    Sandra Glover
    4

  • Zillah and Me
    Helen Dunmore
    4

  • Hard Cash
    Kate Cann
    4

  • It's OK, I'm wearing really big knickers! (Further confessions of Georgia Nicolson)
    Louise Rennison
    4

  • Raspberries on the Yangtze
    Karen Wallace
    4

  • Hex: Ghosts
    Rhiannon Lassiter
    3

  • Toad Rage
    Morris Gleitzman
    3

  • The Holy Terrors
    Josephine Feeney
    3

  • Strays Like Us
    Richard Peck
    3

  • In Black and White
    Catherine R Johnson
    3

  • Getting Rid of Karenna
    Helena Pielichaty
    3

  • Ireland
    Terry Deary
    3

  • Suffering Scientists; Shocking Electricity
    Nick Arnold
    3

  • Wising Up
    E A Blare
    2

  • Youch! It Bites!
    Trevor Day
    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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