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Books for Keeps 190 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 190 - September 2011
BfK 190 September 2011

This issue's cover illustration by Tony Ross is from Francesca Simon's Horrid Henry and the Zombie Vampire.  Thanks to Orion Children's Books for their help with this September cover.

By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of BfK 190 September 2011.

BfK No. 190 Articles

Ian Beck on The Haunting of Charity Delafield

Ian Beck on The
Haunting of Charity Delafield
Editorial - September 2011

News and comment from the Editor.
Tomi Ungerer: A Life of Contrasts

Brian Alderson assesses Ungerer’s career as a picture book creator.
Ten of the Best: 'Lyrical' Non-Fiction Books

Margaret Mallett chooses her top ten ‘lyrical’ non-fiction
books.

BfK Basics: Buying Reference Books for Your Child

Sue Unstead makes recommendations.
Uncle Tom's Cabin Reassessed

Clive Barnes determines the relevance to today's young readers
BfK's Brilliant Bookshops: The Main Street Trading Company

The Main Street Trading Company
Windows into Illustration: John Fardell

John Fardell on how he went about illustrating The Day Louis Got Eaten.
Authorgraph No. 190: Francesca Simon

Francesca Simon interviewed by Julia Eccleshare.
BfK Briefing - September 2011

Awards * news
Hal's Reading Diary - September 2011

Roger Mills on reading versus writing.
I Wish I'd Written... The Iron Man

Andy Stanton chooses Ted Hughes' The Iron Man.
Good Reads: The Stephen Perse Foundation

Reviews from the pupils of The Stephen Perse Foundation, Cambridge.
Classics in Short No. 89: Black Beauty

Brian Alderson on Anna Sewell's Black Beauty
K.M.Peyton by Meg Rosoff

The winner of the Carnegie Award in 1969 with The Edge of the Cloud , the second part of the ‘Flambards’ trilogy, K M Peyton had her first book published while she was still at school. Her friend Meg Rosoff pays tribute to K M Peyton’s long and distinguished career.
Dredging the Past: Sally Gardner’s new novel

Sally Gardner delves into uncharted waters for her new novel, The Double Shadow. Damian Kelleher gets his toes wet for Books for Keeps.
Christopher Paolini: Growing up with dragons

Melissa Hyder caught up with Christopher Paolini for Books for Keeps at the beginning of a hectic four-day UK visit.
Tony DiTerliz interviewed

Graham Marks talks to Tony DiTerlizzi

Editor's Choice

Wonderstruck
Brian Selznick
(Scholastic)
5

Brian Selznick won the 2008 Caldecott Medal for his first book, www.scholastic.com/hugocabret/">The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a novel that broke new ground with its dual visual...

read more

New Talent

Good Little Wolf
Nadia Shireen
(Jonathan Cape (PB))
5

First picture books are so often let down by a story that doesn’t really work but Nadia Shireen’s debut picture book which she wrote and illustrated, is wittily and tightly constructed and perfectly pitched to engage young readers.

Rolf is...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 190

  • Under 5s
  • Ages 5-8
  • Ages 8-10
  • Ages 10-14
  • Ages 14+

Under 5s

  • Good Little Wolf
    Nadia Shireen
    5

  • The Animal Bop Won't Stop
    Jan Ormerod
    4

  • My Dad is Beautiful
    Jessica Spanyol
    4

  • The Rhyming Rabbit
    Julia Donaldson
    4

  • The Queen of France
    Tim Wadham
    4

  • What Will You Be Grandma?
    Nanette Newman
    4

  • Silly Doggy
    Adam Stower
    3

Ages 5-8

  • Painting Out the Stars
    Elspeth Graham
    4

  • When Chico went fishing
    Robin Tzannes
    3

  • Grub's Pups
    Abi Burlingham
    3

  • Detective Brother: Jamie’s Amazing Cape Adventure
    Pete Johnson
    3

  • Queen of the Falls
    Chris Van Allsburg
    3

  • Fetlocks Hall: The Curse of the Pony Vampires
    Babette Cole
    3

  • Hubble Bubble Granny Trouble
    Tracey Corderoy
    3

  • Dear Fairy Godmother
    Michael Rosen
    2

Ages 8-10

  • Wonderstruck
    Brian Selznick
    5

  • The Sleeping Army
    Francesca Simon
    4

  • Secret Horse
    Jane Smiley
    4

  • The Filth Licker
    Cristy Burne
    4

  • Stitch Head
    Guy Bass
    3

  • My Name is Rose
    Sally Grindley
    3

  • For the Record
    Ellie Irving
    3

  • The Deeping Secrets
    Victor Watson
    2

Ages 10-14

  • Immortal War
    Justin Somper
    5

  • A Monster Calls
    Patrick Ness
    5

  • How to be a boy
    Tony Bradman
    4

  • Siz Words and a Wish
    Karen McCombie
    4

  • Undead
    Kirsty McKay
    4

  • Edda
    Conor Kostick
    4

  • Caddy’s World
    Hilary McKay
    4

  • Trapped
    Isla Whitcroft
    3

  • Outlaw
    Stephen Davies
    3

  • An Act of Love
    Alan Gibbons
    3

  • Angel's Fury
    Bryony Pearce
    3

  • A Year without Autumn
    Liz Kessler
    3

  • Muhammad Ali – fifteen rounds with the greatest ¦ Charles Dickens – Hard Times and Great Expectations ¦ John Lennon- the story of the original Beatle ¦ J.K. Rowling – the mystery of fiction
    Hugh MacDonald
    3

Ages 14+

  • Strings Attached
    Judy Blundell
    5

  • Paradise
    Joanna Nadin
    5

  • Salem Brownstone: All Along the Watchtowers
    John Harris Dunning
    4

  • Closer
    Maxine Linnell
    4

  • Shift
    Jeri Smith Ready
    4

  • Cold Hands, Warm Heart
    Jill Wolfson
    4

  • Belle's Song
    K M Grant
    4

  • Pretty Twisted
    Gina Blaxill
    4

  • Legend
    Marie Lu
    4

  • Out of Towners
    Dan Tunstall
    3

  • Marcelo in the Real World
    Francisco X Stork
    3

  • Unearthly
    Cynthia Hand
    3

  • Here Lies Bridget
    Paige Harbison
    3

BfK News

BRANFORD BOASE AWARD SHORTLIST 2019

The children’s authors to watch: shortlist for the 2019 Branford Boase Award announced

Branford Boase Award shortlist 2019

read more...
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.

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

read more...
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