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Books for Keeps 143 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 143 - November 2003

Cover Story

This issue's cover illustration is from John Burningham's Borka. Burningham's work is discussed by Brian Alderson. Thanks to Random House Children's Books for their help with this November cover.

BfK No. 143 Articles

Editorial - November 2003

News and comment from the Editor.
On the Tightrope in Burningham-land

Brian Alderson on the career of John Burningham.
Christmas Treats

Rosemary Stones chooses books to give.
A Little Piece of Ground

Michael Rosen on Elizabeth Laird's latest novel.
Poetry Slam! Respect Slam!

Ceri Worman on competitive performance poetry.
Hal’s Reading Diary - November 2003

Roger Mills on Hal at 2 years and 9 months.
Authorgraph No.143: Bob Graham

Bob Graham interviewed by Joanna Carey.
BfK Briefing - November 2003

News *Events * Publications * Awards * Letter to the Editor
Useful Organisations No.30: Read Together!

The Scottish Executive's Home Reading Initiative.
I Wish I’d Written... Where the Wild Things Are

Marcia Williams chooses Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are.
Good Reads: King Solomon High School, Ilford, Essex

Reviews from pupils of King Solomon High School, Ilford, Essex.
Classics in Short No.42: The Night Before Christmas

Brian Alderson on Clement Clarke Moore's The Night Before Christmas.

Editor's Choice

A Sterkarm Kiss
Susan Price
(Scholastic Press)
5

The sequel to The Sterkarm Handshake, Price's outstanding time slip novel in which people from the 21st century can return to the 16th, A Sterkarm Kiss tantalises the reader by bringing the protagonists together...

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New Talent

Eager
Helen Fox
(Hodder Children's Books)
3

'Eager' is the name that the Bell family give to their latest robot as it seems to sum up his personality - for Eager is a new kind of robot who can learn things and have feelings. Meanwhile the technocrat Morris family, who are rich enough to...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 143

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

Under 5s

  • Captain Duck
    Jez Alborough
    5

  • Little One Step
    Simon James
    5

  • Line and Circle
    Radhika Menon
    5

  • The Sheep Fairy: When Wishes Have Wings
    Ruth Louise Symes
    4

  • Go Maisy, Go!
    Lucy Cousins
    4

  • Five in the bed and the little one said...
    4

  • Hide & Speak French
    Catherine Bruzzone
    Susan Martineau
    3

  • The Rainbow Book of Nursery Tales
    Sam Childs
    3

  • Under the Bed
    Paul Bright
    3

  • Tinka
    Rainy Dohaney
    3

  • The Gossipy Parrot
    Shen Roddie
    3

  • Mary Had a Little Lamb
    Sam Childs
    3

  • The Moon; Minibeasts; The Sea; Chocolate; Teeth; Homes
    Claire Llewellyn
    2

  • Goldilocks and the Three Bears
    Kate Clynes
    2

Ages 5-8

  • Evie and the Man Who Helped God; Always and Forever
    Michael Foreman
    5

  • The Shape Game
    Anthony Browne
    5

  • Crispin and the Three Little Piglets
    Ted Dewan
    4

  • The Little Dictionary
    3

  • Violet and the Mean and Rotten Pirates
    Richard Hamilton
    3

  • Bold Bad Ben the Beastly Bandit
    Ann Jungman
    3

  • Spud
    Alison Prince
    3

  • A Winter's Tale
    Marcus Sedgwick
    3

  • Paddington and the Grand Tour
    Michael Bond
    3

  • Katie in London
    James Mayhew
    3

  • Be Boy Buzz
    Bell Hooks
    3

  • Sandbear
    Shen Roddie
    3

  • The Night Before Christmas
    Clement Clarke Moore
    1

Ages 8-10

  • Overheard on a Saltmarsh: Poets' Favourite Poems
    5

  • Children's World Atlas
    Simon Adams
    Mary Atkinson
    Sarah Phillips
    4

  • Magic in Art
    Alexander Sturgis
    3

  • The Unvisibles
    Ian Whybrow
    3

  • Attila, Loolagax and the Eagle
    Nichola McAuliffe
    3

  • Elephant Child
    Mary Ellis
    3

  • Eager
    Helen Fox
    3

  • Encore, Grace!
    Mary Hoffman
    3

  • Agent Spike and the Vegetables of Doom; Aargh, it's an Alien!
    Mark Burgess
    3

  • The Vanishing Rainforest
    Richard Platt
    2

Ages 10-14

  • DK Guide to Mammals
    Ben Morgan
    5

  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
    J K Rowling
    5

  • Pictures from the Fire
    Gaye Hiçyilmaz
    5

  • Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis
    J K Rowling
    4

  • Surprising Joy
    Valerie Bloom
    4

  • Stratford Boys
    Jan Mark
    4

  • Friction
    E R Frank
    4

  • Private Peaceful
    Michael Morpurgo
    4

  • Scabbit Isle
    Tom Pow
    4

  • Whoop An' Shout!
    Valerie Bloom
    4

  • Nelson Mandela
    Adrian Hadland
    3

  • Esperanza Rising
    Pam Munoz Ryan
    3

  • Going Straight
    Michael Coleman
    3

  • Mouse Attack
    Manjula Padma
    3

  • Feather Boy
    Nicky Singer
    3

  • Faking It
    Pete Johnson
    3

  • When Isla meets Luke meets Isla
    Rhian Tracey
    3

  • Borderland
    Rhiannon Lassiter
    2

Ages 14+

  • Grass
    C Z Nightingale
    5

  • A Sterkarm Kiss
    Susan Price
    5

  • Voices
    Sue Mayfield
    4

  • Small Gains
    K M Peyton
    4

  • No Angels
    Robert Swindells
    4

  • Many Stones
    Carolyn Coman
    4

  • Excluded
    3

  • Wendy
    Karen Wallace
    3

  • Friends, Enemies and Other Tiny Problems
    Rosie Rushton
    3

  • UNICEF; Greenpeace
    Steven Maddocks
    2

Books About Children's Books

  • Ezra Jack Keats, A Bibliography and Catalogue
    5

  • Richmal Crompton, The Woman Behind Just William
    Mary Cadogan
    3

BfK News

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...
PATRICE LAWRENCE AND DARREN CHETTY TO JUDGE 2019 LITTLE REBELS AWARD

Little Rebels prize logoAward-winning YA author Patrice Lawrence and Books for Keeps contributor Darren Chetty have been named as judges of the 2019 Little Rebels Award. The Little Rebels Award celebrates children’s books for readers age 0-12 which promote social equality and social justice.

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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