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

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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...

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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...

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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

THE YEAR'S BEST POETRY FOR CHILDREN: CLiPPA 2019 SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) has announced the 2019 shortlist for their poetry award, CLiPPA (The Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award). Children’s poetry is booming and there were a record number of entries for the CLiPPA, the only award for children’s poetry.

read more...
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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2018 EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD

Canvases, Codes, Clean Water & Empathy

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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...
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