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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...

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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...

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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

ALASTAIR HUMPHREYS’ GREAT ADVENTURERS WINS THE 2019 EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD

The winner of the 2019 Educational Writers’ Award is Alastair Humphreys’ Great Adventurers: The Incredible Expeditions of 20 Explorers (Big Picture Press).

Alastair Humphreys Great Adventures

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BLACKMAN AND DOWNHAM ON SHORTLIST FOR 2019 COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD

Former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman and acclaimed author Jenny Downham are on the shortlist for the 2019 Costa Children’s Book Award, which was announced today, 26th November 2020. Alongside them on the list are newcomers Jasbinder Bilan and Nicholas Downing, both of whom are published by Chicken House.

The 2019 Costa Children’s Award shortlist

read more...
2019 ALCS EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD SHORTLIST

Shortlist announced for the UK’s only award for creative educational writing

The Society of Authors and the Authors’ Licensing& Collecting Society have announced the shortlist for the 2019 ALCS Educational Writers’ Award, the UK’s only award for educational writing which stimulates and enhances the learning experience.

read more...
‘INSPIRING’: CONTENDERS FOR THE 2020 BLUE PETER BOOK AWARDS REVEALED

Blue Peter Book Award logo

Six books have made it onto the shortlists for the 2020 Blue Peter Book Awards. There are two categories: Best Story, and – in non-fiction November – Best Book with Facts.

read more...
NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2020 CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS

And we’re off… the nominations for the 2020 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are announced today, Monday 4th November.

read more...
2020 UKLA BOOK AWARDS THE LONGLISTS

UKLA Awards

A record number of submissions and a new category to highlight information books marks the 12th longlists for the UKLA Awards, the only national awards judged by active classroom teachers.

read more...
JESSICA LOVE NAMED WINNER OF THE KLAUS FLUGGE PRIZE 2019 FOR JULIAN IS A MERMAID

Jessica Love

read more...
LOLLIES 2020 SHORTLIST THE YEAR’S FUNNIEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Michael Rosen, children’s novelist, poet and former Children’s Laureate, has announced the shortlist for the 2020 Laugh Out Loud Awards (The Lollies), the awards that celebrate the funniest children’s books.

Lollies logo

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HOOD, RUNDELL AND REYNOLDS UKLA BOOK AWARD WINNERS 2019

Morag Hood, Katherine Rundell and Jason Reynolds have been announced as the winners of the UKLA Book Awards 2019 for I Am Bat, The Explorer and Long Way Down respectively.

read more...
CATHERINE JOHNSON WINS LITTLE REBELS CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD

The Alliance of Radical Booksellers (ARB) is delighted to announce that the winner of this year’s Little Rebels Children’s Book Award for Radical Fiction is Catherine Johnson for her book, Freedom (Scholastic 2018).

Catherine Johnsonn photo Andy Donohoe

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