Home
  • Home
  • Latest Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Authors & Artists
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Forums
  • Search

Books for Keeps 155 - the children's book magazine online

  • View
  • Rearrange

Digital version – browse, print or download

Can't see the preview?
Click here!

How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.

BfK Newsletter

Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!

BfK No. 155 - November 2005

Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration features Anthony Horowitz’s Raven’s Gate. Anthony Horowitz is interviewed by Nicholas Tucker. Thanks to Walker Books for their help with this November cover.

BfK No. 155 Articles

Editorial - November 2005

News and comment from the Editor.

Books as Gifts at Christmas

Rosemary Stones suggests books for giving.

Counting Books

Sheila Ebbutt on books that count.

The CLPE Poetry Prize 2005

Tony Mitton explains the judging process.

BfK Briefing - November 2005

Awards * News * Letter to the Editor * Obituary

Useful Organisations No.41: National Centre for Language & Literacy

Extensive collection of children's books and resources, plus conferences, courses, publications and membership scheme.

Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award

Andrew Bailey discusses Haf Davies' 'Beans, Babes?'

Good Reads: Ballyclare High School, County Antrim

Reviews from Ballyclare High School, County Antrim.

Authorgraph No.155: Anthony Horowitz

Anthony Horowitz interviewed by Nicholas Tucker.

I Wish I'd Written... Le Grand Meaulnes

Sally Gardner chooses Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes.

Hal's Reading Diary - November 2005

Roger Mills has more thoughts on the nature of humour.

Classics in Short No.54: Selected Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Brian Alderson on the Brothers Grimm's Selected Tales.

Editor's Choice

Killer Gorilla

Jeanne Willis
(Andersen Press)
5

When mouse loses her baby it seems that things couldn’t get any worse – that is until a huge, scary gorilla starts chasing after her. Mouse runs and runs – to China, to America, to Australia – with the gorilla in hot pursuit. Finally she reaches...

read more

New Talent

Elsewhere

Gabrielle Zevin
(Bloomsbury Publishing PLC)
5

15-year-old Liz is ‘just a girl who forgot to look both ways before she crossed the street’. It comes as a shock to her that she is in fact dead and that everyone else on the SS Nile cruising towards the land of Elsewhere is also dead. Liz is met...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 155

  • Under 5s
  • Ages 5-8
  • Ages 8-10
  • Ages 10-14
  • Ages 14+

Under 5s

  • Piglet and Mama

    Margaret Wild
    5
  • Big Blue Engine ¦ Big Red Fire Engine ¦ Big Yellow Taxi ¦ Little Red Plane

    Ken Wilson-Max
    5
  • Killer Gorilla

    Jeanne Willis
    5
  • for sure! for sure! ¦ Winnie at the Seaside

    Hans Christian Andersen
    4
  • Sound Like Someone Trying Not to Make a Sound, A

    John Irving
    4
  • Otter's First Swim, An

    Adrienne Kennaway
    4
  • Joe's Dog

    Angela Joy
    4
  • Bears

    Ruth Krauss
    4
  • Where's My Darling Daughter?

    Mij Kelly
    3
  • Princess and the Rainbow Coat, The

    3
  • Me and My Brother

    Caroline Uff
    3
  • Little, Little House, The

    Jessica Souhami
    3
  • I Love My Daddy; I Love My Mummy

    Sebastien Braun
    3
  • Buzz Bumble to the Rescue

    Lynn E Hazen
    3
  • Baby Finds; Baby Goes; Baby Noises; Baby Plays

    Derek Brazell
    3

Ages 5-8

  • We're Riding on a Caravan: An Adventure on the Silk Road

    Laurie Krebs
    5
  • Pigs Might Fly!

    Steve Cox
    Jonathan Emmett
    4
  • Night-time Tale

    Ruth Brown
    4
  • Materials

    Clive Gifford
    4
  • Dog Called Whatnot, A; Mummy Family Find Fame, The

    Linda Newbery
    3
  • Just Like Sisters

    Angela McAllister
    3
  • Birds; Reptiles

    Sue Malyan
    2

Ages 8-10

  • Girl Who Married a Lion, The (Folk Tales from Africa)

    Alexander McCall Smith
    5
  • Action Jackson

    Jan Greenberg
    Sandra Jordan
    5
  • Tree House, The

    Gillian Cross
    4
  • Runny Babbit

    Shel Silverstein
    4
  • Old Tom; Old Tom at the Beach

    Leigh Hobbs
    4
  • Itching for a Fight

    Joel Snape
    4
  • Corydon and the Island of Monsters

    Tobias Druitt
    4
  • Come Christmas

    Eleanor Farjeon
    4
  • Beasts of Clawstone Castle, The

    Eva Ibbotson
    4
  • Ancient Rome

    Stewart Ross
    4
  • Marie Antoinette

    Katie Daynes
    3
  • Cal and the Amazing Anti-Gravity Machine

    Richard Hamilton
    3

Ages 10-14

  • Zip's Apollo

    Philip Ridley
    5
  • White Darkness, The

    Geraldine McCaughrean
    5
  • Martin Luther King, Jr

    Amy Pastan
    5
  • How Hedley Hopkins Did a Dare

    Paul Jennings
    5
  • Whitaker's World of Facts

    Russell Ash
    4
  • War: Stories of Conflict

    4
  • Usborne Introduction to the Second World War, The

    Paul Dowswell
    4
  • Spy Force Revealed; Time and Space Machine, The

    Deborah Abela
    4
  • Seeker

    William Nicholson
    4
  • I, Coriander

    Sally Gardner
    4
  • How Cool Stuff Works

    Chris Woodford
    4
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

    J K Rowling
    4
  • Gladiatrix

    Frances Hendry
    4
  • Flowing Queen, The

    Kai Meyer
    4
  • Fire Pony

    Rodman Philbrick
    4
  • The Bull Raid

    Carlo Gébler
    4
  • Breakfast at Sadie's

    Lee Weatherly
    4
  • Ten Days to Zero

    Bernard Ashley
    3
  • So Below: Key to the City

    Matt Whyman
    3
  • Shadewell Shenanigans, The

    David Lee Stone
    3
  • Rainbow Opera, The

    Elizabeth Knox
    3
  • Lord Loss

    Darren Shan
    3
  • Leonardo and the Death Machine

    Robert J Harris
    3
  • Bridge to the Stars, A

    Henning Mankell
    3
  • Saint of Dragons, The

    Jason Hightman
    2
  • Burying Beetle, The

    Ann Kelley
    2

Ages 14+

  • Elsewhere

    Gabrielle Zevin
    5
  • Scientists Anonymous

    Patricia Fara
    4
  • Ithaka

    Adèle Geras
    4
  • The Drowning

    Valerie Mendes
    4
  • Does Snogging Count as Exercise?

    Helen Salter
    4
  • Spiked!

    Sandra Glover
    3
  • Chanda's Secrets

    Allan Stratton
    3

BfK News

ONJALI RAÚF BECOMES WRITER IN RESIDENCE FOR BOOKTRUST

Award-winning author and activist, Onjali Raúf takes up the post as the new Writer in Residence for BookTrust, today, International Women’s Day. She takes over from Smriti Halls.

Onjali Q Raúf

read more...
LONGLISTS ANNOUNCED FOR 2021 CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS

The longlist for the 2021 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced.

CKG Logo

read more...
LONGLIST ANNOUNCED FOR 2021 KLAUS FLUGGE PRIZE

Klaus Flugge Prize logo

read more...
NOW OPEN: 2021 HENRIETTA BRANFORD WRITING COMPETITION

Finish a story started by Branford Boase Award winner Liz Hyder

The Henrietta Branford Writing Competition, the annual competition for young people which runs in conjunction with the Branford Boase Award, is now open.

read more...
TWO UK ENTRIES ON IBBY LIST OF OUTSTANDING BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Every two years, IBBY invites nominations for its international List of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities. Nominations are made by IBBY national sections and the final list is selected from these by the IBBY Documentation Centre of Books for Young People with Disabilities, based in Toronto. Because of its international content, the list is unique in the children’s book world. It is a huge voluntary undertaking as every country is encouraged to submit up to twelve titles across the three categories.

read more...
LONGLIST FOR THE 2021 BRANFORD BOASE AWARD

The longlist for the 2021 Branford Boase Award has been announced. Set up in memory of award-winning author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase, one of the founders of Walker Books, the Branford Boase Award is given annually to the author of an outstanding debut novel for children.

read more...
NATASHA FARRANT WINS 2020 COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD

Natasha Farrant

Writer and literary scout Natasha Farrant has won the 2020 Costa Children’s Book Award for Voyage of the Sparrowhawk, a book which the judges described as ‘pure heavenly escapism and a purely joyful read.’

read more...
ROBIN WALKER WINS THE 2020 ALCS EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD FOR BLACK HISTORY MATTERS

The winner of the 2020 ALCS Educational Writers’ Award is Black History Matters: The Story of Black History, From African Kingdoms to Black Lives Matter. Written by acclaimed Black historian, Robin Walker, the 2020 judges praised this accessible, comprehensive and inspiring book which provides a timely introduction both to Black history and the Black Lives Matter movement.

read more...
IBBY UK nominate Marcus Sedgwick and David McKee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award 2022

IBBY UK has announced that Marcus Sedgwick and David McKee will be the UK nominations for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award.

read more...
SHORTLIST FOR THE COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD 2020

Debut authors Darren Charlton and Jenny Pearson join Natasha Farrant and Meg Rosoff on the shortlist for the 2020 Costa Children’s Book Award.

The shortlist for the 2020 Costa Children’s Book Award has been announced. No less than 146 books were submitted and from those the judges have chosen a shortlist of four. They are:

Wranglestone by Darren Charlton (Little Tiger)

read more...
more
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Help/FAQ
  • My Account