Home
Blood Red Road Banner Ad
  • Home
  • Latest Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Authors & Artists
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Forums
  • Search

Books for Keeps 158 - the children's book magazine online

Digital version – browse, print or download

BfK Newsletter

Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!

BfK No. 158 - May 2006

Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration is from Simon Bartram’s Up for the Cup! due to be published in September. Simon Bartram is interviewed by Martin Salisbury. Thanks to Templar Publishing for their help with this May cover.

BfK No. 158 Articles

Editorial - May 2006

News and comment from the Editor.
Marginalising Essentials

Robert Hull on interventionism in the teaching of English.
Fiction Publishing in the 21st Century

Cally Poplak assesses the potential of iCUE.

A Sailor’s Life for Me

Janet Fisher discusses historical novels about Trafalgar.
Authorgraph No.158: Simon Bartram

Simon Bartram interviewed by Martin Salisbury.
What Happens During Shared Reading?

Vincent Reid explores new research findings.
Hal's Reading Diary - May 2006

Roger Mills on competitive parents.
Good Reads: Stanchester Community School, Stoke Sub Hamdon, Somerset

Reviews from Stanchester Community School, Somerset.
BfK Briefing - May 2006

Awards * Events * Obituary * Letters to the Editor * Competition
Useful Organisations No.44: BRAW

BRAW (Books, Reading and Writing) is the network for the Scottish children’s book.
I Wish I’d Written…The Eclipse of the Century

Kate Thompson chooses Jan Mark's The Eclipse of the Century.
Classics in Short No.57: Nurse Matilda

Brian Alderson on Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda.

Editor's Choice

The Book of Everything
Guus Kuijer
(Young Picador)
5

Have Kuijer’s books been translated before? On the basis of this pithy, short, intensely poetic novel set in the Amsterdam of the 1950s, it would be good to have more of his work in translation.

The bares bones of the story are that 9-year...

read more

New Talent

The Wind Tamer
P R Morrison
(Bloomsbury Publishing PLC)
4

Archie Stringweed is just ten and a mollycoddled boy whose father, Jeffrey, is very nice but a man who is so anxious that despite collecting travel brochures, he has never dared to venture abroad. The Springweed family motto is ‘Semper fortitudo...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 158

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

Under 5s

  • Ten Steps to Bedtime
    Britta Teckentrup
    5

  • Ouch! I Need a Plaster!
    Nick Sharratt
    5

  • Counting Cockatoos
    Stella Blackstone
    5

  • This Little Chick
    John Lawrence
    4

  • Spookyrumpus
    Tony Mitton
    4

  • Shark in the Park!
    Nick Sharratt
    4

  • Ketchup On Your Cornflakes?
    Nick Sharratt
    4

  • Eric the Red
    Caroline Glicksman
    4

  • This is the Bear
    Sarah Hayes
    Helen Craig
    3

  • Simeon's Gift
    Julie Andrews Edwards
    Emma Walton Hamilton
    3

  • My Mum Goes to Work
    Kes Gray
    3

  • I Love Shapes
    Dr Miriam Stoppard
    3

  • More and More Rabbits
    Nicholas Allan
    2

  • Cleo's Colour Book
    Caroline Mockford
    2

Ages 5-8

  • When a Zeeder Met a Xyder
    Malachy Doyle
    4

  • Oscar and the Frog: A Book about Growing; Oscar and the Moth: A Book about Light and Dark
    Geoff Waring
    4

  • My Map Book
    Sara Fanelli
    4

  • The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon
    Mini Grey
    4

  • My Hat and All That
    Tony Mitton
    3

  • Dinosaur Chase!
    Benedict Blathwayt
    3

Ages 8-10

  • Think of a Number
    Johnny Ball
    5

  • Katie Milk Solves Crimes and so on…
    Annie Caulfield
    5

  • The Penderwicks
    Jeanne Birdsall
    4

  • Clair de Lune
    Cassandra Golds
    4

  • A Bit of Nonsense
    Edward Lear
    4

  • The Wind Tamer
    P R Morrison
    4

  • Transform! How everyday things are made
    Jim Slavin
    3

  • The Story Shop: Stories for Literacy
    3

  • The Midwinters
    Julie Rainsbury
    3

  • A Dog For Life
    L S Matthews
    3

  • Ramose and the Tomb Robbers; Ramose: Prince in Exile
    Carole Wilkinson
    2

  • I Believe in Unicorns
    Michael Morpurgo
    2

  • Flyte (Septimus Heap, Book Two)
    Angie Sage
    2

Ages 10-14

  • Waiting for the Future: Poems by children on poverty and bad housing
    5

  • The Ultimate Teen Book Guide
    5

  • Peace Weavers
    Julia Jarman
    5

  • Once
    Morris Gleitzman
    5

  • The Lottery
    Beth Goobie
    5

  • A Darkling Plain
    Philip Reeve
    5

  • The Book of Everything
    Guus Kuijer
    5

  • Wolf Girl
    Theresa Tomlinson
    4

  • Watching
    Judy Allen
    4

  • Midnighters: The Secret Hour
    Scott Westerfeld
    4

  • Ingo
    Helen Dunmore
    4

  • Flying a Flag for Hitler
    Elsbeth Emmerich
    4

  • The Death Collector
    Justin Richards
    4

  • Charley Feather
    Kate Pennington
    4

  • Venus Spring: Stunt Girl
    Jonny Zucker
    3

  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
    Rick Riordan
    3

  • Payback
    Andy McNab
    Robert Rigby
    3

  • It Didn't Happen
    Sandra Glover
    3

  • Heretic
    Sarah Singleton
    3

  • Boy Band Blues
    Kelly McKain
    3

  • Death of A Princess
    Susan Geason
    2

Ages 14+

  • Tersias
    G P Taylor
    5

  • Silent to the Bone
    E L Konigsburg
    5

  • Let's Get Lost
    Sarra Manning
    5

  • Forged in the Fire
    Ann Turnbull
    5

  • Uglies
    Scott Westerfeld
    4

  • Skin
    A M Vrettos
    4

  • Herman
    Lars Saabye Christensen
    4

  • Thieves Like Us
    Steve Cole
    3

  • Love in Luxor
    Gill Harvey
    3

  • Firestarter
    Catherine Forde
    3

  • The Book of Whispers
    Julie O'Callaghan
    2

Books About Children's Books

  • Treasure Islands: Studies in Children's Literature
    4

BfK News

DICKENS AND CHILDHOOD CONFERENCE

Dickens and Childhood Conference and Symposium Monday 18 June

It is not too late to book places on this special one-day conference on Dickens and Childhood, which will include walks, lectures, readings, and parallel sessions on topics that will appeal to students, teachers, Dickens experts, and the ‘interested reader’.

Marcia Williams Dickens

read more...
Siobhan Dowd Trust launches competition to help encourage a love of reading

The Siobhan Dowd Trust launches competition to help encourage a love of reading

The Siobhan Dowd Trust is proud to announce that Michael Rosen, Poet and ex-Childrens’ Laureate will be on the judging panel of a schools campaign, which is asking teachers and librarians for their ideas about how they encourage a love of books in their schools. The Trust will use the entries to build up a database of ideas which can be shared and swapped… and the ten best or most innovative ideas will receive £1000 worth of books.

read more...
Maurice Sendak June 1928 – May 2012

Maurice Sendak, who has died at the age of 83 was one of the most important illustrators of the twentieth century. Joanna Carey assesses his career for Books for Keeps

read more...
2012 Branford Boase Shortlist

Branford Boase Award logoSeven authors are on the shortlist for the 2012 Branford Boase Award, announced today, Monday 30 April.

The Branford Boase Award is given annually to the author of an outstanding debut novel for children. Uniquely, it also honours the editor of the winning title and highlights the importance of the editor in nurturing new talent.

read more...
Riddell and Stewart Guest Speakers at IBBY UK AGM 2 May

Chris Riddell and Paul Stewart will be guest speakers at the IBBY UK AGM on Wednesday 2 May at Random House 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA, London. The meeting is free and non-members are welcome. Refreshments will be available from 6.30pm with Chris and Paul speaking at 7pm. Book sales and a signing will take place after the meeting. To book a place email bicarrington@nasuwt.net

read more...
2012 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal Shortlists

2012 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medal Shortlists

The shortlists have been announced for the 2012 CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, the oldest and most prestigious of all the UK’s children’s book awards.

There are eight books on each shortlist, two more than has been usual: a sign perhaps of the difficulty the judges had in making their final choice.

read more...
GUUS KUIJER TO RECEIVE THE ASTRID LINDGREN MEMORIAL AWARD 2012

The 2012 Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award is to be awarded to the Dutch author Guus Kuijer.

read more...
FIRST BRITISH EXHIBITION OF CHINESE PICTURE BOOK ILLUSTRATION

In April, London hosts the first exhibitions in Britain of Chinese children’s and picture book illustration. The exhibitions feature eighty individual illustrations by China’s most celebrated children’s illustrators, and is organised by the Zhejiang Publishing Group, the Publishers’ Association of China, Propeller TV, and the Chinese Board on Books for Young People (CBBY); with the cooperation of the UK section of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY UK).

read more...
NEW AWARD SHORTLISTS ANNOUNCED

As we wait for the announcement of the shortlists for this year’s CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, two other interesting and unusual award shortlists have just been revealed.

read more...
Transfer for Once Upon A Wartime exhibition

The Once Upon A Wartime exhibition is now at IWM North Manchester, until 2 September 2012

Based on five war-based children’s novels, the exhibition explores the history of real life conflicts from 1914 to the present day through the eyes of fictional children.

Read Kate Agnew’s Books for Keeps review of the exhibition here.

read more...
more
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Help/FAQ
  • My Account
website developed by purkiss