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Books for Keeps 182 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 182 - May 2010
BfK 182 May 2010

Cover Story
This issue’s cover is from Mary Hooper’s latest book, Fallen Grace, to be published on 7 June (978 0 7475 9913 5, £8.99 hbk). Mary Hooper is interviewed by Julia Eccleshare. Thanks to Bloomsbury for their help with this May cover.

BfK No. 182 Articles

Editorial – May 2010

News and comment from the Editor.
Once bitten: the fang bang fiction of Stephenie Meyer

Nicholas Tucker analyses the appeal of the vampire.
Ten of the Best Poetry Books for Children

Morag Styles chooses her top ten titles.
Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne on appreciating picture books

Anthony Browne discusses Chris Van Allsburg's The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.
The Catcher in the Rye

Clive Barnes assesses the influence of Salinger's classic novel.
Authorgraph No.182: Mary Hooper

Mary Hooper interviewed by Julia Eccleshare
Hal’s Reading Diary – May 2010

Roger Mills tries to avoid being a pushy parent.
BfK Briefing – May 2010

* Awards * Letter * Events
Obituary: William Mayne

William Mayne: 1928 – 2010
I wish I’d written… The Hidden Adult – Defining Children’s Literature

Peter Hunt chooses Perry Nodelman’s The Hidden Adult – Defining Children’s Literature.
Good Reads: Truro School, Cornwall

Reviews from pupils of Truro School, Cornwall.
Classics in Short: The Sword in the Stone

Brian Alderson on T H White’s The Sword in the Stone.

Editor's Choice

Everybody was a baby once and other poems
Allan Ahlberg
(Walker)
5

In his discussion of single poet collections in BfK No 179, Brian Alderson talked about the importance for such compilations to be ‘what might be called “shaped units” existing as a complete reading experience in themselves...

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New Talent

Montacute House
Lucy Jago
(Bloomsbury Publishing PLC)
3

As an illegitimate child, 13-year-old poultry maid Cess is lucky to have a job at all. Life is hard for her and her mother who are shunned by their prosperous and ‘respectable’ relatives – but rebellious Cess finds it hard to accept being...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 182

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

Under 5s

  • Don't Want to Go!
    Shirley Hughes
    5

  • Six Dinner Sid: A Highland Adventure
    Inga Moore
    5

  • Let's Save the Animals
    Frances Barry
    5

  • Love-a-Duck
    Alan James Brown
    4

  • I'm the Best
    Lucy Cousins
    4

  • Little Rex
    Ruth Symes
    4

  • The Fox and the Hen
    Eric Battut
    3

  • Don't Let the Aliens Get My Marvellous Mum!
    Gillian Shields
    3

  • Rhino's Great Big Itch!
    Natalie Chivers
    3

  • The Giant Carrot
    Allan Manham
    3

  • Big Noisy Book of Animals
    Harriet Blackford
    3

Ages 5-8

  • When Daddy's Truck Picks Me Up
    Jana Novotny Hunter
    5

  • Catherine's Story
    Genevieve Moore
    5

  • Everybody was a baby once and other poems
    Allan Ahlberg
    5

  • Cloud Tea Monkeys
    Mal Peet
    Elspeth Graham
    4

  • The Most Precious Present in the World ¦ Dad David, Baba Chris and ME
    Becky Edwards
    4

  • Frightfully Friendly Ghosties
    Daren King
    4

  • The Snake King of the Kalinago
    Children - Atkinson School - Dominica
    3

  • The Twelve Dancing Princesses
    3

  • Why the Animals Came to Town
    Michael Foreman
    3

  • Noddy and the Farmyard Muddle
    Sophie Smallwood
    3

  • The Knight of Swords and Spooks
    Terry Deary
    3

  • What's Ukrainian for Football?
    Helena Pielichaty
    3

  • Pigs in Planes: The Chicken Egg-splosion
    Paul Cooper
    3

Ages 8-10

  • Calamity Jack
    Shannon Hale
    Dean Hale
    5

  • No Way Out
    Gene Kemp
    4

  • Lob
    Linda Newbery
    4

  • The Raven Mysteries: Book 3: Lunatics and Luck
    Marcus Sedgwick
    4

  • Beswitched
    Kate Saunders
    4

  • Enchanted Glass
    Diana Wynne Jones
    4

  • The Greatest Intergalactic Guide to Space Ever… by the Brainwaves
    Carole Stott
    4

  • The Boy Who Climbed into the Moon
    David Almond
    3

  • Rose and the Lost Princess
    Holly Webb
    3

  • Nobody's Horse
    Jane Smiley
    3

  • Tassie and the Black Baron
    Katie Roy
    3

Ages 10-14

  • Bone by Bone by Bone
    Tony Johnston
    5

  • Where I Belong
    Gillian Cross
    5

  • Leon - Spit on the Mic
    Ola Laniyan-Amoako
    4

  • The Legionary from Londinium and Other Mini-mysteries
    Caroline Lawrence
    4

  • Drawing With Light
    Julia Green
    4

  • Crawlers
    Sam Enthoven
    4

  • Rebel
    R J Anderson
    4

  • Flyaway
    Lucy Christopher
    4

  • Geronimo ¦ The Perfect Rebel: The Life and Death of Emily Davison
    Tanya Landman
    4

  • Montacute House
    Lucy Jago
    3

  • Striker Boy
    Jonny Zucker
    3

  • The Stone Crown
    Malcolm Walker
    3

  • The History Book
    Samone Bos
    Laura Buller
    others
    3

  • The Way We Work
    David Macaulay
    Richard Walker
    3

  • Gaia Warriors
    Nicola Davies
    2

Ages 14+

  • No and Me
    Delphine de Vigan
    5

  • The Carbon Diaries 2017
    Saci Lloyd
    5

  • My Love Lies Bleeding
    Alyxandra Harvey
    4

  • Koh Tabu
    Ann Kelley
    4

  • The Worst of Me
    Kate Le Vann
    3

  • Guilt Trip
    Anne Cassidy
    3

  • Stolen
    Lucy Christopher
    3

  • Need
    Carrie Jones
    3

  • Prisoner of the Inquisition
    Theresa Breslin
    3

  • When I Was Joe
    Keren David
    3

  • Pretties
    Scott Westerfeld
    3

  • The Left Hand of God
    Paul Hoffman
    3

Books About Children's Books

  • Reading the Novels of Aidan Chambers: Seven Essays
    Nancy Chambers
    5

  • Poetry - From Reading to Writing: A Classroom Guide for Ages 7-11
    Robert Hull
    5

BfK News

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.

read more...
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.

read more...
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.

read more...
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

read more...
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...
SHORTLISTS ANNOUNCED FOR BLUE PETER BOOK AWARDS

The shortlists have been announced for the 2019 Blue Peter Book Awards. They are:

Best book with facts

The Element in the Room by Mike Barfield and illustrated by Lauren Humphry, Laurence King Publishing

The Colours of History by Clive Gifford and Marc-Etienne Peintre, QED Publishing

Professor Astro Cat's Human Body Odyssey by Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman, Flying Eye Books

read more...
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