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Books for Keeps 135 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 135 - July 2002

Cover Story
This issue's cover illustration by Nick Sharratt is from Jeremy's Strong's Krazy Kow Saves the World - Well, Almost. Jeremy Strong is interviewed by Jeff Hynds. Thanks to Puffin for their help with this July cover.

BfK No. 135 Articles

Editorial - July 2002

News and comment from the Editor.
Popping Up All Over

Geoff Fox on movable books.
The Art of Looking at Things

Joanna Carey on new picture books.
Hal’s Reading Diary - July 2002

Roger Mills on his son Hal at 16 months.
The Wicor Ten

Sue Leach on an innovative reading project.
BfK Profile: Helen Flint

Lois Keith on the novels of Helen Flint.
Adult Books Teenagers Read

Julia Eccleshare on the books that attract teens.
Authorgraph No.135: Jeremy Strong

Jeremy Strong interviewed by Jeff Hynds.
BfK Briefing - July 2002

News * Awards * Events * Obituaries * Letters to the Editor
Useful Organisations No.22: Healthy Books

Books offering information and reassurance with health and emotional problems.
I Wish I’d Written... Rufugee Boy

Michael Rosen chooses Benjamin Zephaniah's Refugee Boy.
Good Reads: Saint Stithian's Girls’ Preparatory School

Reviews from pupils of Saint Stithian's Girls' Preparatory School, Randburg, South Africa.
Classics in Short No.34: Molesworth

Brian Alderson on Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle's Molesworth.

Editor's Choice

The Boy Who Lost His Face
Louis Sachar
(Bloomsbury Publishing PLC)
5

David reluctantly takes part in stealing an old lady's cane in an ugly incident in which she falls off her chair showing her knickers and has lemonade tipped over her head. As David struggles with peer group pressure and bullying, this painful...

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New Talent

Cold Tom
Sally Prue
(Oxford University Press)
5

One of the tribe who live on the common, Tom fends cautiously for himself, ever watchful in case his growing clumsiness leads to his expulsion or worse. Meanwhile the houses of the much-feared demons have edged closer. These alien worlds come...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 135

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

Under 5s

  • Do Like a Duck Does!
    Judy Hindley
    5

  • Frog
    Susan Cooper
    4

  • Room for One More
    Ingrid Schubert
    Dieter Schubert
    4

  • Wet Pebbles Under Our Feet
    Manya Stojic
    4

  • Sleepy Pendoodle
    Malachy Doyle
    3

  • Flop-Ear is Brave!
    Guido Van Genechten
    3

  • Wiggle My Toes and other action rhymes
    Kaye Umansky
    3

Ages 5-8

  • This Amazing World
    5

  • The Birdwatchers
    Simon James
    5

  • Start with Art: Animals
    Sue Lacey
    3

  • Seasons Turning ¦ High Tide, Low Tide ¦ Story of a Storm ¦ When the Sun Goes Down ¦ Watch Out! Builders About!
    Mick Manning
    Brita Granström
    3

  • Nice One, Smithy
    Paul May
    3

  • Frankenstella and the Video Shop Monster
    Herbie Brennan
    3

  • Tumbler
    Liz Filleul
    3

  • Finn Family Moomintroll
    Tove Jansson
    2

  • Patrick: Saint of Ireland
    Joyce Denham
    2

  • A Book of Letters
    Ken Wilson-Max
    2

Ages 8-10

  • Archer's Goon
    Diana Wynne Jones
    4

  • The Wool Pack
    Cynthia Harnett
    4

  • When Marnie Was There
    Joan G Robinson
    3

  • Midnight for Charlie Bone
    Jenny Nimmo
    3

  • Shrinking Violet
    Jean Ure
    3

  • Big George
    Eric Pringle
    3

  • Sir Rupert and Rosie Gusset in Deadly Danger
    Jeremy Strong
    3

  • Danger by Moonlight
    Jamila Gavin
    3

  • Great Expectations
    3

  • The Colour of My Dreams
    Peter Dixon
    3

  • The Sleeping Sword
    Michael Morpurgo
    3

  • Quirky Tales
    Paul Jennings
    2

Ages 10-14

  • Food Supply: Our Impact on the Planet; An Overcrowded World? Our Impact on the Planet
    Rob Bowden
    5

  • The Blitz; Evacuation; Rationing; Women's War
    Stewart Ross
    5

  • The Boy Who Lost His Face
    Louis Sachar
    5

  • Cold Tom
    Sally Prue
    5

  • The Edge
    Alan Gibbons
    5

  • Burning Issy
    Melvin Burgess
    5

  • Tuck Everlasting
    Natalie Babbitt
    5

  • The Great Depression; The Civil Rights Movement
    R G Grant
    4

  • Why Do People Fight Wars?; Why Do People Harm Animals?
    Ali Brownlie
    Chris Mason
    4

  • Cut
    Patricia McCormick
    4

  • Shopaholic
    Judy Waite
    4

  • Pawnee Warrior
    Chris D'Lacey
    4

  • Child X
    Lee Weatherly
    4

  • Green Fingers
    Paul May
    4

  • Twilight Ghost
    Magdalen Nabb
    4

  • What My Mother Doesn't Know
    Sonya Sones
    3

  • Daisy Chain War
    Joan O'Neill
    3

  • Letters to Liz: Jo's Letter; Letters to Liz: Nicki's Letter
    Mary Hooper
    3

  • Spindle's End
    Robin McKinley
    3

  • Transported: The Diary of Elizabeth Harvey, Australia 1790
    Goldie Alexander
    3

  • Whispers on the Wind
    Sue Welford
    3

  • Paper Faces
    Rachel Anderson
    3

  • Catherine the Great; Mao Zedong
    Christine Hatt
    2

  • Vicky Angel
    Jacqueline Wilson
    2

  • Book of Shadows; The Coven
    Cate Tiernan
    1

Ages 14+

  • The Other Wind
    Ursula Le Guin
    5

  • Martyn Pig
    Kevin Brooks
    5

  • Generations: Poems between Fathers, Mothers, Daughters, Sons
    5

  • They're Only Human
    James Grieve
    4

  • Raider's Tide
    Maggie Prince
    4

Books About Children's Books

  • The Address Book of Children's Authors and Illustrators
    Gervase Phinn
    4

  • The Child that Books Built
    Francis Spufford
    4

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.

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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

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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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