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Books for Keeps 151 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 151 - March 2005

Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration is from Grace Nichols’ Everybody Got a Gift. Grace Nichols is interviewed by Morag Styles. Thanks to A & C Black for their help with this March cover.

BfK No. 151 Articles

Editorial - March 2005

News and comment from the Editor.
Early Years Reading: getting young readers passionate about books

Alison Kelly explains ways to 'cultivate' young readers.
The Best Stories of 2004

Librarians and booksellers recommend their top titles.
BfK Profile: Philippa Pearce

Julia Eccleshare looks at Philippa Pearce's distinguished career.
Hal’s Reading Diary - March 2005

Roger Mills explores Hal's obsession with books on knights.
The Art of the Translator: translating children's books into English

Nicholas Tucker on translating children's books into English.
Take 3: Laureates

Revelations from Quentin Blake, Anne Fine and Michael Morpurgo.
BfK Briefing - March 2005

News * Events * Awards * Obituaries
Useful Organisations No.37: Itchy Coo

Award-winning imprint specialising in Scots language books for children.
Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award

Jean Sprackland discusses Nimrah Zeb's 'My Two Week Cat'.
Authorgraph No.151: Grace Nichols

Grace Nichols interviewed by Morag Styles.
I Wish I’d Written... The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Anne Cassidy chooses Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.
Good Reads: King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds

Reviews from pupils of King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds.
Classics in Short No.50: The Box of Delights

Brian Alderson on John Masefield's The Box of Delights.

Editor's Choice

Polo Finds a Friend
Mathew Price
(Mathew Price Ltd)
5

This small square book with its pulls and flap is a masterly account in miniature of the trials and the pleasures of friendship, touching on such important early childhood themes as losing and finding, loving and hating.

Polo the dog has...

read more

New Talent

The Dreamwalker's Child
Steve Voake
(Faber & Faber)
3

A gap in the fabric between our world and the world of Aurobon has been opened and through it schoolboy Sam Palmer is snatched from the English country lane where he has been riding his bike to be thrust into a high security prison in the warring...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 151

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

Under 5s

  • Polo Finds a Friend
    Mathew Price
    5

  • You're All My Favourites
    Sam McBratney
    5

  • Cushie Butterfield
    Colin McNaughton
    4

  • It's Quacking Time!
    Martin Waddell
    4

  • Bartholomew and the Bug
    Neal Layton
    4

  • When I Grow Up
    Colin McNaughton
    4

  • Alphabet book
    Pittau Gervais
    4

  • Oscar and Hoo Forever
    Theo
    3

  • The Bad Mood!
    Moritz Petz
    3

  • Baba's Gift
    Beverley Naidoo
    Maya Naidoo
    3

  • One, Two, Buckle My Shoe; Said Mouse to Mole; Going to the Dentist; The Wonderful Gift; Numbers, Book 1
    2

  • Floppy's Friends
    Guido Van Genechten
    2

  • my very first Bedtime book
    Lois Rock
    1

Ages 5-8

  • Tales Told in Tents: Stories from Central Asia
    Sally Pomme Clayton
    5

  • Katie and the Bathers
    James Mayhew
    4

  • The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish
    Neil Gaiman
    4

  • Alphabet Poem
    Michael Rosen
    4

  • So Hungry
    Daniel Morden
    3

  • If Dinosaurs were Cats and Dogs
    Colin McNaughton
    1

Ages 8-10

  • The Scarecrow and his Servant
    Philip Pullman
    5

  • What Makes Me Me?
    Robert Winston
    4

  • Taliesin: The Boy Wizard; Shock Forest and other stories; The Barber's Clever Wife; The Path of Finn McCool; Snow Horse and other stories; Sky Ship and other stories
    4

  • Football Fantasy Mersey City 4 4 2; Football Fantasy Tyne Athletic 4 3 3; Football Fantasy Medway United 4 5 1; Football Fantasy Thames United 4 4 2
    Jonathan Sutherland
    3

  • Aneil has a Food Allergy; Jordan has a Hearing Loss; Luke has Down's Syndrome; Sam uses a Wheelchair; Becky has Diabetes; Zack has Asthma
    Jillian Powell
    3

  • Swedish Folk Tales
    3

  • Brind and the Dogs of War
    Christopher Russell
    3

  • The Dreamwalker's Child
    Steve Voake
    3

  • Amadans
    Malachy Doyle
    3

  • Horse Tales
    3

  • Lucy and the Big Bad Wolf
    Ann Jungman
    3

Ages 10-14

  • Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
    Michael Morpurgo
    5

  • Under Fire: Children of the Second World War tell their Stories
    5

  • Girl Underground
    Morris Gleitzman
    5

  • Pagan in Exile
    Catherine Jinks
    4

  • Tiger, Tiger
    Lynne Reid Banks
    4

  • The Witch of Clatteringshaws
    Joan Aiken
    4

  • No Way Am I Living With Her!
    Caroline Plaisted
    4

  • 35 Kilos of Hope
    Anna Gavalda
    4

  • A City Through Time
    Philip Steele
    4

  • Bad, Bad Darlings: Small But Deadly
    Sam Llewellyn
    4

  • Blood on Snow
    Tim Bowler
    3

  • Back to The Divide
    Elizabeth Kay
    3

  • One Chance
    Steve May
    3

  • At the Firefly Gate
    Linda Newbery
    3

  • The Ice Road
    Jaap Ter Haar
    3

  • Children of the Lamp: the Akhenaten adventure
    P B Kerr
    2

  • The Unrivalled Spangles
    Karen Wallace
    2

Ages 14+

  • Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
    Susanna Clarke
    5

  • The Wish House
    Celia Rees
    5

  • Politics and Propaganda
    Adam Hibbert
    4

  • Candy
    Kevin Brooks
    4

  • The House in Norham Gardens
    Penelope Lively
    4

Books About Children's Books

  • Illustrating Children's Books: Creating Pictures for Publication
    Martin Salisbury
    5

  • Publisher
    Tom Maschler
    4

  • Studies in Children's Literature 1500-2000
    4

  • Chin Up, Chest Out, Jemima! A Celebration of the Schoolgirls' Story
    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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