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Books for Keeps 154 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 154 - September 2005

Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration is from the 20th Anniversary Edition of Lynley Dodd’s Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy. Lynley Dodd is interviewed by Joanna Carey. Thanks to Puffin for their help with this September cover.

BfK No. 154 Articles

Editorial - September 2005

News and comment from the Editor.
Are Books for Children Worth Reading?

Michael Rosen on how literacy is undermining literature.
Are Books for Children Worth Reading - full speech text

Full text of Michael Rosen's inaugural lecture as Visiting Professor at Middlesex University.
Early Years Reading: ICT and early literacy: multiple literacies at work

Olivia O'Sullivan encourages multiple literacy.
Picture Books - Real or Synthetic?

Jeff Hynds discusses synthetic phonics and new picture books.
Typography in Children's Books

Sue Walker explores the influence of typefaces.
BfK Profile: Rodman Philbrick

Nicholas Tucker looks at the books of Rodman Philbrick.
Take 3: Children's Book Characters

Revelations about the Gruffalo, Spot and Thomas the Tank Engine.
Hal's Reading Diary - September 2005

Roger Mills discusses what makes Hal laugh.
Authorgraph No.154: Lynley Dodd

Lynley Dodd interviewed by Joanna Carey.
I Wish I'd Written... Truckers

Frank Cottrell Boyce chooses Terry Pratchett's Truckers.
Foyle Young Poets of the Year

Mandy Coe discusses Thanbir Ahmed's untitled poem.
BfK Briefing - September 2005

News * Awards * Events
Useful Organisations No.40: Seven Stories, the Centre for Children's Books

Major archive collection plus regular exhibitions and events.
Classics in Short No.53: The Magic Pudding

Brian Alderson on Norman Lindsay's The Magic Pudding.

Editor's Choice

The Worst Witch Saves the Day
Jill Murphy
(Puffin)
5

Mildred Hubble, the eponymous worst witch in Miss Cackle's Academy for Witches, made her debut in 1974 and instantly broke new ground with Murphy's delicious combination of an accessible and entertaining text interspersed with plentiful sharply...

read more

New Talent

The Diary of Pelly-D
L J Adlington
(Hodder Children's Books)
4

In a society founded centuries ago by settlers from planet Earth, the official line is that there is no racism in this brave new world despite genetic differences between the Atsumisi, the Mazzini and the Galrezi. Confident, rich and gorgeous, 14...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 154

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

Under 5s

  • Harold and the Duck
    Bruce Robinson
    5

  • Clapping Games: Whole Brain Workouts for Lively Children ¦ Skipping Games: Energetic Workouts for Lively Children ¦ Playground Games: Co-operative Learning for Lively Children
    Jenny Mosley
    Helen Sonnet
    5

  • Stan and His Gran
    Sarah Garland
    5

  • Captain Flinn and the Pirate Dinosaurs
    Giles Andreae
    4

  • Colours: A First Art Book
    Lucy Micklethwait
    4

  • Under the Sea ¦ One Scary Night ¦ At the Circus
    Benedicte Guettier
    3

  • Milet Picture Dictionary: English/Tamil
    Sedat Turhan
    3

  • Three Monsters
    David McKee
    3

Ages 5-8

  • Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
    5

  • The Worst Witch Saves the Day
    Jill Murphy
    5

  • Coral Reef
    Caroline Bingham
    4

  • The Haunted Piccolo
    Gene Kemp
    4

  • Lotsa de Casha
    Madonna
    4

  • Slam!
    Adam Stower
    4

  • The Topsy-Turvies
    Francesca Simon
    4

  • Don't Cook Cinderella
    Francesca Simon
    3

  • Meet Wild Boars
    Meg Rosoff
    Sophie Blackall
    3

  • Mr Pod and Mr Piccalilli
    Penny Dolan
    3

  • Welcome to the World Baby!
    Na'ima Bint Robert
    3

  • Frida
    Jonah Winter
    2

  • Polly the Party Fun Fairy ¦ Honey the Sweet Fairy
    Daisy Meadows
    2

  • DK Human Body Encyclopedia
    1

Ages 8-10

  • The Jungle Book
    Rudyard Kipling
    5

  • Jammy Dodgers go Underground
    Bowering Sivers
    4

  • A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms
    Paul B Janeczko
    4

  • Magyk
    Angie Sage
    4

  • Pirate
    Deborah Lock
    4

  • Animals Like Us
    Andrea Mills
    3

  • Ellie and the Cat
    Malorie Blackman
    3

  • Fairy Tales: A Classic Collection
    3

  • King Matt the First
    Janusz Korczak
    3

  • Shakespeare's Globe
    Toby Forward
    3

  • Alexander the Great: the life of a king and conqueror ¦ Spartacus: the life of a Roman gladiator
    Rob Shone
    Anita Ganeri
    3

  • Waking Merlin
    Tanya Landman
    3

  • Cock Crow: Poems about life in the countryside
    2

Ages 10-14

  • Inkspell
    Cornelia Funke
    5

  • Jacob's Ladder
    Brian Keaney
    5

  • Boy Soldier
    Andy McNab
    Robert Rigby
    4

  • The Diary of Pelly-D
    L J Adlington
    4

  • Einstein's Theories of Relativity; Splitting the Atom; The Discovery of DNA; The Discovery of Penicillin; The First Computers; The First Polio Vaccine
    Alan Morton
    4

  • The Foreshadowing
    Marcus Sedgwick
    4

  • The Heaven Shop
    Deborah Ellis
    4

Ages 14+

  • Bloodsong
    Melvin Burgess
    5

  • Surrender
    Sonya Hartnett
    5

  • Tessa in Love
    Kate Le Vann
    5

  • Hunter's Heart
    Julia Green
    4

  • '...then he ate my boy entrancers.'
    Louise Rennison
    4

  • Odin's Voice
    Susan Price
    3

  • Paralysed
    Sherry Ashworth
    3

  • The Wrong Hands
    Nigel Richardson
    3

Books About Children's Books

  • The 'Creating a Reading Culture' Handbook (Primary and Secondary Versions) ¦ Animating Literacy: Inspiring Children's Learning through Teacher and Artist Partnerships ¦ The Core Booklist
    Reading Connects Team
    5

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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