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Books for Keeps 153 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 153 - July 2005

Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration is from Mick Manning and Brita Granström’s Yuck! Mick Manning and Brita Granström are interviewed by Ted Percy. Thanks to Frances Lincoln for their help with this July cover.

BfK No. 153 Articles

Editorial - July 2005

News and comment from the Editor.
Early Years Reading: First encounters with non-fiction

Margaret Mallett explores informational literacy.
Take 3: Non-fictionistas

Revelations from Penny Arlon, Ruth Hooper and Rebecca Gilpin.
Hal's Reading Diary - July 2005

Roger Mills and Hal try reading in instalments.
The Multifarious Editions of Hans Christian Andersen

Brian Alderson on how Andersen has been published.
You'd Think They Could Get Their Facts Right

Felix Pirani's typology of mistakes in non-fiction/reference titles.
I Wish I'd Written... The Secret Garden

Gwynneth Rees chooses The Secret Garden.
Foyle Young Poets of the Year

Fiona Sampson discusses Emma Lindley's 'The Weather Forecast For My Family'.
The Macmillan Prize

Martin Salisbury discusses its history and influence.
Authorgraph No.153: Mick Manning and Brita Granström

Mick Manning and Brita Granström interviewed by Ted Percy.
BfK Briefing - July 2005

News * Letters to the Editor * Event * Obituary
Useful Organisations No.39: The Roald Dahl Museum & Story Centre

Museum housing Roald Dahl's extensive literary archive, plus much more.
Classics in Short No.52: Inside Outside Upside Down

Brian Alderson on Stan and Jan Berenstain's Inside Outside Upside Down.

Editor's Choice

Yankee Girl
Mary Ann Rodman
(Usborne Publishing Ltd)
5

The 1960s in the United States was the period of the Civil Rights Movement with its freedom marches and riots. Drawing on her own experiences as the daughter of one of the 150 special agents ordered to Mississippi by President Lyndon Johnson,...

read more

New Talent

Century
Sarah Singleton
(Simon & Schuster Children's UK)
5

Mercy and her sister Charity are trapped in a endless night-time winter world in their great house with an unchanging routine of walks and lessons. But when Mercy finds a snowdrop on her pillow this symbol of Spring enables her to open her eyes...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 153

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

Under 5s

  • Yuck!
    Mick Manning
    5

  • The Dancing Tiger
    Malachy Doyle
    4

  • I Want A Friend
    Tony Ross
    4

  • In a Little While
    Charlotte Hudson
    4

  • Little Rabbit Runaway
    Harry Horse
    4

  • Looking After Little Ellie
    Dosh Archer
    Mike Archer
    4

  • No Bed without Ted
    Nicola Smee
    4

  • Once Upon a Tide
    Tony Mitton
    4

  • Oscar's Half Birthday
    Bob Graham
    4

  • The Shopping Expedition
    Allan Ahlberg
    4

  • Sleep Tight, Little Bear
    Martin Waddell
    4

  • One Magical Morning
    Claire Freedman
    3

  • Prince of the Birds
    Amanda Hall
    3

  • Farm; Zoo
    Mary Novick
    Jenny Hale
    3

Ages 5-8

  • Lucy Cat at the Farm
    Catherine Bruzzone
    5

  • Akimbo and the Crocodile Man
    Alexander McCall Smith
    3

  • Long-Long's New Year; Chopsticks
    Catherine Gower
    3

  • Journey Through Islamic Art
    Na'ima Bint Robert
    3

  • Muckabout School
    Ian Whybrow
    3

  • Rodeo Ron and his Milkshake Cows
    Rowan Clifford
    3

  • Flora the Fairy
    Tony Bradman
    2

  • Ruby Sings the Blues
    Niki Daly
    1

Ages 8-10

  • The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips
    Michael Morpurgo
    5

  • Tilly and the Wild Goats
    Joan Lingard
    4

  • I Rule Dogsbottom School; Dogsbottom School Goes Totally Mental
    Jon Blake
    3

  • The Drowned Sword
    Cherith Baldry
    3

  • Grandpa's Angel
    Jutta Bauer
    3

  • Nelly the Monster Sitter
    Kes Gray
    3

  • The Secret Life of Jamie B (Rapstar)
    Ceri Worman
    3

Ages 10-14

  • Barkbelly
    Cat Weatherill
    5

  • Century
    Sarah Singleton
    5

  • The New Policeman
    Kate Thompson
    5

  • Paint Me a Poem: new poems inspired by art in the Tate
    Grace Nichols
    5

  • Peter Raven Under Fire
    Michael Molloy
    5

  • The Sea of Trolls
    Nancy Farmer
    5

  • Yankee Girl
    Mary Ann Rodman
    5

  • Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception
    Eoin Colfer
    4

  • The Dream Merchant
    Isabel Hoving
    4

  • Epic
    Conor Kostick
    4

  • Elizabeth I; Napoleon
    Charlotte Moore
    4

  • Secrets of the Fearless
    Elizabeth Laird
    4

  • Wenny Has Wings
    Janet Lee Carey
    4

  • Being Bindy
    Alyssa Brugman
    3

  • Love, Mates & Money
    Kathryn Lamb
    3

  • The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
    E L Konigsburg
    3

  • Skinny B, Skaz and Me
    John Singleton
    3

  • The Time Wreccas
    Val Tyler
    3

  • The New World Order
    Ben Jeapes
    2

  • The Dark Side of Midnight
    Carol Hedges
    1

  • The Fearful
    Keith Gray
    1

  • Tree of Life: The Incredible Biodiversity of Life on Earth
    Rochelle Strauss
    1

Ages 14+

  • Brilliance of the Moon
    Lian Hearn
    4

  • Divided City
    Theresa Breslin
    4

  • Girl, Nearly 16, Absolute Torture
    Sue Limb
    4

  • Roxy's Baby
    Catherine MacPhail
    4

  • The Whisper
    Bali Rai
    4

  • The Wild
    Matt Whyman
    4

  • Daniel Half Human
    David Chotjewitz
    3

  • Fatelessness
    Imre Kertész
    3

  • Jewel and Thorn
    Richard Poole
    2

Books About Children's Books

  • The Future of Childhood
    Alan Prout
    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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