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Books for Keeps 160 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 160 - September 2006

Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration by Getty Images is from Tim Bowler’s Frozen Fire. Tim Bowler is interviewed by Geoff Fox. Thanks to Oxford University Press for their help with this September cover.

BfK No. 160 Articles

Editorial - September 2006

News and comment from the Editor.
Diversity Matters: growing markets in children’s publishing - How Committed Are Publishers to Publishing Black Writers?

Malorie Blackman describes her experiences of being published.
Early Years Reading: Anna Wilson’s ‘Nina Fairy Ballerina’ series

Alison Kelly explores Anna Wilson's 'Nina Fairy Ballerina' series.
Diversity Matters: growing markets in children’s publishing - Conference Report

Shereen Pandit reports on her impressions.
Waiting for a Jamie Oliver: Beyond bog-standard literacy

Henrietta Dombey assesses the arguments.
Authorgraph No.160: Tim Bowler

Tim Bowler interviewed by Geoff Fox.
BfK Briefing - September 2006

News * Letters to the Editor * Obituary
Useful Organisations No.46: Bayard magazines for children

StoryBox, AdventureBox and StoryBox monthly magazines for children.
Hal’s Reading Diary – September 2006

Roger Mills on Hal’s science library.
I Wish I’d Written… Fly By Night

Meg Rosoff chooses Frances Hardinge's Fly By Night.
Good Reads: King Edward VI Aston School

Reviews from King Edward VI Aston School, Birmingham.
Classics in Short No.59: The Jungle Books

Brian Alderson on Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Books.

Editor's Choice

The Cat Who Wanted to Go Home
Jill Tomlinson
(Egmont Books Ltd)
5

Best known for The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark , Jill Tomlinson excelled at warmly written, humorous young fiction titles featuring young animals faced with a challenge. Now her text for The Cat Who Wanted to Go Home...

read more

New Talent

Beast
Ally Kennen
(Marion Lloyd Books)
4

17-year-old Stephen is due to leave his foster family of four years, the Reynolds, and all his social worker can offer him as a place to live is St Mark’s, the rough hostel for homeless people where, ironically, Stephen’s biological father once...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 160

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

Under 5s

  • The Runaway Dinner
    Allan Ahlberg
    5

  • Clip-Clop
    Nicola Smee
    5

  • 006 and a Bit
    Kes Gray
    5

  • The Cat Who Wanted to Go Home
    Jill Tomlinson
    5

  • Little Fish
    Guido Van Genechten
    4

  • Happy Birthday, Jamela!
    Niki Daly
    4

  • Un Deux Trois: First French Rhymes
    3

  • Animal Moves; Animal Noises
    Dawn Apperley
    3

  • All My Friends
    Gill Lobel
    3

  • Mrs Pepperpot Learns to Swim; Mrs Pepperpot Minds The Baby
    Alf Prøysen
    2

Ages 5-8

  • Fly, Pigeon, Fly!
    John Henderson
    Julia Donaldson
    5

  • Running Shoes
    Frederick Lipp
    4

  • My First Book of Garden Birds
    Mike Unwin
    4

  • The Great Tug of War
    Beverley Naidoo
    4

  • Four Red Apples
    David McKee
    4

  • Death in a Nut
    Eric Maddern
    3

Ages 8-10

  • War With Troy: Teacher's Guide; War With Troy: The Story of Achilles
    Grant Bage
    Jennie Dunn
    Bob Lister
    5

  • Terribly True Crime Stories; Terribly True Spy Stories
    Terry Deary
    4

  • The Boy With The Lightning Feet
    Sally Gardner
    4

  • A Horse Called El Dorado
    Kevin Kiely
    3

  • The Awful Tale of Agatha Bilke
    Sian Pattenden
    2

  • Acid Rain
    Lucy Poddington
    1

Ages 10-14

  • Tanglewreck
    Jeanette Winterson
    5

  • Smokescreen
    Bernard Ashley
    5

  • Nothing Scares Me
    Gene Kemp
    5

  • Into the Woods
    Lyn Gardner
    5

  • Does My Head Look Big In This?
    Randa Abdel-Fattah
    5

  • Coster Girls & Mudlarks: Street voices from Victorian London
    5

  • The Tide Knot
    Helen Dunmore
    4

  • Obesity
    Michaela Miller
    4

  • My Swordhand Is Singing
    Marcus Sedgwick
    4

  • Marco's Pendulum
    Thom Madley
    4

  • Half Moon Investigations
    Eoin Colfer
    4

  • Can You Feel The Force?
    Richard Hammond
    4

  • Blade of Fire
    Stuart Hill
    4

  • '...startled by his furry shorts!' Fab New Confessions of Georgia Nicolson
    Louise Rennison
    4

  • The Willow Man
    Sue Purkiss
    3

  • The Telling Pool
    David Clement-Davies
    3

  • Rise of The Blood Moon
    Alan Gibbons
    3

  • How the Hangman Lost His Heart
    K M Grant
    3

  • Fourth Horseman, The
    Kate Thompson
    3

  • The Black Tattoo
    Sam Enthoven
    3

  • The Sirens of Surrentum
    Caroline Lawrence
    1

Ages 14+

  • Small-Minded Giants
    Oisín McGann
    5

  • Centre of my World
    Andreas Steinhöfel
    5

  • A Brief Chapter in my Impossible Life
    Dana Reinhardt
    4

  • Beast
    Ally Kennen
    4

  • Shining On
    3

  • Malcolm X
    Michael Benson
    3

  • Damage
    Sue Mayfield
    3

  • Angel Blood
    John Singleton
    3

  • Kidulthood
    Jim Eldridge
    2

Books About Children's Books

  • Making of Me,The A writer's childhood
    Robert Westall
    4

  • Wand in the Word, The: Conversations with Writers of Fantasy
    3

BfK News

A Passion for Picture books

‘Although interest in the art of the picture book seems to have grown greatly in recent years, study of the field has remained polarised in its nature and perceptions,’ claim the authors of an important new book, Children’s Picturebooks: The art of visual storytelling.

Books for Keeps invited co-writers Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles to explain their aim to bring together ideas from the world of literature and education with ideas from the field of art and design.

read more...
BLOOD RED ROAD WINS 2011 COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD

For the second year in succession, a debut novel has won the Costa Children’s Book Award. The 2011 prize went to Jason Wallace for his novel Out of Shadows; this year’s prize has gone to Moira Young for her book Blood Red Road.

Set in a dystopian future world, Blood Red Road tells the story of 18-year-old Saba, a tough young woman who embarks on an epic quest to rescue her twin brother when he is kidnapped by four mysterious horsemen.

read more...
Behind the Bookshelf

A new way of bringing authors into the classroom – and a special competition for Books for Keeps readers.

read more...
2011 Educational Writers’ Award Winner Announced

The winner of the 2011 Educational Writers’ Award is Moon: Apollo 11 and Beyond…The Ultimate Guide to Our Nearest Neighbour by Stewart Ross.

The Educational Writers’ Award was established in 2008 by ALCS and The Society of Authors to celebrate educational writing that inspires creativity and encourages students to read widely and build up their understanding of a subject beyond the requirements of exam specifications.

read more...
Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize winner announced

The winner of the 2011 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize is How the World Works, an interactive opus that uses illustrations, pop ups, flaps and more to make children think about the impact of human actions on our environment, while encouraging respect for the natural world.

read more...
Muslim Writers Awards 2011

Na'ima B Robert's Far from Home (Frances Lincoln) has won the Published Children's Book category of the Muslim Writers Awards.

The Awards were held at the Globe Theatre on Tuesday 22nd November and acknowledged dramatists and young journalists as well as authors.

read more...
2011 Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize

After a two year gap when, due to funding issues it was not awarded, The Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2011 will be awarded on Thursday 1st December, thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor.

The prize celebrates the books that best communicate science to young people aged up to 14 and there are six books on the shortlist. They are:

The Icky Sticky Blood and Snot Book by Steve Alton and Nick Sharratt (Bodley Head)

read more...
Liz Pichon and Peter Bently: Roald Dahl Funny Prize Winners

Winners Roald Dahl Prize 2011 2Tuesday 8th November saw the fourth annual Roald Dahl Funny Prize ceremony, which again took place at the Unicorn Theatre. This year Chair, and instigator of the prize, Michael Rosen was joined on the judging panel by author and broadcaster Grace Dent, illustrator Tony Ross, Horrid Henry creator Francesca Simon and journalist/scriptwriter Danny Wallace.

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PIRATE CATS AND DOODLING SCHOOLBOY WIN THE 2011 ROALD DAHL FUNNY BOOK PRIZE

Roald Dahl Winners 2011Peter Bently and Liz Pichon have been announced as winners of the 2011 Roald Dahl Funny Book Prize. 

read more...
FIRST SLA INFORMATION BOOK AWARD: WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Adrian Dingle’s book How to make a Universe with 92 Ingredients (Scholastic) and The Life and Times of William Shakespeare by Kirsten McDermott and Ari Berk (Templar) were announced winners of the first SLA Information Book Award at a celebration event in London last night, Wednesday 2nd November.

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