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Books for Keeps 131 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 131 - November 2001

Cover Story
This issue's cover is from Andrew Matthews' and Angela Barrett's The Orchard Book of Shakespeare Stories. Angela Barrett is interviewed by Quentin Blake. Thanks to Orchard Books for their help with this November cover.

BfK No. 131 Articles

Editorial - November 2001

News and comment from the Editor.
Treats at Christmas

Joanna Carey on books for giving.
Finding the Real Shakespeare

Michael Rosen on his new book Shakespeare: His Work and His World.
Fairy Tales in the New Millennium

Brian Alderson on authenticity and the storyteller's art.
BfK Profile: Lynne Markham

Julia Eccleshare on the novels of Lynne Markham.
Inspiring 'Reluctant' Readers

Arthur Shenton on how reading for a purpose hits the spot.
Jack's First Books - November 2001

Gary McKeone concludes his baby son's reading diary.
Authorgraph No.131: Angela Barrett

Angela Barrett interviewed by Quentin Blake.
BfK Briefing - November 2001

News * Events * Publications * Awards * Obituary * Letters to the Editor
Useful Organisations No.18: The Book Art Project

Encouraging the teaching of writing through the book arts.
Good Reads: Fernwood Comprehensive School

Reviews of the Carnegie shortlisted titles from Fernwood Comprehensive School, Nottingham.

Classics in Short No.30: Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales

Brian Alderson on the tales of Hans Christian Andersen.

Editor's Choice

The Boy Who Was Brought Up by Teddy Bears
Jeanne Willis
(Andersen Press Ltd)
4

Believing him to be ‘all alone in the world’, three teddy bears adopt a baby they find in the woods and bring him up. In the tradition of feral children of legend, the baby grows up believing himself to be a teddy bear (he walks like one and...

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New Talent

Crazy
Benjamin Lebert
(Puffin Books)
5

An autobiographical novel by the then 16-year-old Lebert, Crazy opens with his arrival at Castle Neuseelen boarding school, his fifth school and one on which his parents are pinning hopes for improved grades. Benjamin introduces himself as...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 131

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

Under 5s

  • Blue Horse and Tilly
    Helen Stephens
    5

  • Good Dog, Daisy
    Lisa Kopper
    4

  • The Boy Who Was Brought Up by Teddy Bears
    Jeanne Willis
    4

  • One Too Many Tigers ¦ Squeak! Squeak!
    Cressida Cowell
    3

  • Let's Go, Anna!
    Vivian French
    3

  • What Does Teddy Like to Wear?
    Prue Theobalds
    3

  • The Three Billy Goats Gruff
    Henriette Barkow
    3

  • Humphrey's Playtime; Humphrey's Garden
    Sally Hunter
    3

  • Farmer George and the New Piglet; Farmer George and the Snowstorm
    Nick Ward
    2

Ages 5-8

  • Ug
    Raymond Briggs
    5

  • Katje the Windmill Cat
    Gretchen Woelfle
    5

  • Nii Kwei's Day; Cassio's Day; Yikang's Day; Polina's Day
    Francis Provencal
    Catherine McNamara
    4

  • Kevin and the Pirate Test; Smudger and the Smelly Fish; Doris's Brilliant Birthday; Captain Motley and the Pirate's Gold
    Margaret Ryan
    4

  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
    C S Lewis
    4

  • One Hot Penguin
    Jamie Rix
    3

  • The Sorcerer's Apprentice
    Sally Grindley
    2

Ages 8-10

  • Acid Rain
    Sally Morgan
    5

  • Friendly Matches
    Allan Ahlberg
    5

  • The Lost Thing
    Shaun Tan
    5

  • The Birth of the Earth; Life Finds its Feet; The Day of the Dinosaurs; The Stick and Stone Age
    Jacqui Bailey
    4

  • The Yellow House
    Susan Goldman Rubin
    4

  • Swings and Shadows: A Childhood in Poetry
    4

  • All About Bullying
    Lesley Ely
    3

  • Favourite Writers
    Kate Jones
    3

  • Brooksie; Sudden Death
    Neil Arksey
    3

  • What Howls at the Moon in Frilly Knickers?
    E F Smith
    3

  • Pony in the Dark
    K M Peyton
    3

  • Polly's Running Away Book
    Frances Thomas
    3

  • The Usborne First Encyclopedia of Space
    Paul Dowswell
    3

  • Tom's Midnight Garden
    Philippa Pearce
    2

  • The Wonderful Thursday Club: Animal Poems
    Gordon Snell
    2

Ages 10-14

  • The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
    Terry Pratchett
    5

  • Crazy
    Benjamin Lebert
    5

  • Elske
    Cynthia Voigt
    5

  • Baldur's Bones
    Mary Arrigan
    4

  • Oranges and Murder
    Alison Prince
    4

  • Cleopatra: The Queen of Kings; Crusades: The Struggle for the Holy Lands
    Fiona Macdonald
    4

  • Out of the Shadows
    Sue Hines
    4

  • United Nations; UNICEF; NATO
    Linda Melvern
    4

  • In Search of a Homeland: The Story of the Aeneid
    Penelope Lively
    4

  • Wolf Summer
    Andrew Matthews
    3

  • Bad Company
    Catherine MacPhail
    3

  • The Skin I'm In
    Sharon G Flake
    3

  • The If Game
    Catherine Storr
    3

  • The Time-Travelling Cat and the Roman Eagle
    Julia Jarman
    3

  • Drugs
    Emma Haughton
    Jon Rees
    3

  • G.S.O.H.
    Andrew Matthews
    3

  • Genetics; Racism
    Robert Snedden
    3

  • The Bottle-top King
    Jonathan Kebbe
    3

  • The Adventures of Jimmy Scar
    Jeanne Willis
    3

  • Christina's Face
    Penny Kendal
    3

  • Sebastian's Quest
    C A Jefferies
    3

  • One Mum Too Many! (Step-Chain 1); You Can't Fancy Your Stepsister (Step-Chain 2)
    Ann Bryant
    2

  • Fiesta
    Kate Cann
    2

  • Dinosaurs; Inside the Internet
    Eric Buffetaut
    2

Books About Children's Books

  • Creating Writers: a creative writing manual for schools
    James Carter
    4

  • Reading Series Fiction: From Arthur Ransome to Gene Kemp
    Victor Watson
    3

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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