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BfK No. 192 - January 2012
BfK 192 January 2012

This issue’s cover illustration is from The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanagan. Thanks to David Fickling Books for their help with this January cover.

Digital Edition
By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of BfK 192January 2012 .

BfK No. 192 Articles

Celia Rees Q and A

Celia Rees answers questions on her new novel This is Not Forgiveness
January 2012 Editorial

Editorial
The Best Children’s Books of 2011

A round-up of fiction, picture books, poetry and non-fiction titles.
Brilliant Bookshops: The Children's Bookshop Huddersfield

Sonia Benster on her bookshop.
Emma Chichester Clark Windows into Illustration

Emma Chichester Clark on how she went about illustrating
‘Wagtail Town’.
Richard Dawkins: The Magic of Reality

Sue Unstead interviews Richard Dawkins.
Ten of the Best Horse and Pony Books

Jane Badger chooses her top ten.
Authorgraph 192 - Margo Lanagan

Margo Lanagan interviewed by Nicholas Tucker.
The Legacy of the Arabian Nights

Neil Philip discusses Marina Warner’s latest book.
January Briefing

Awards and news
Steve Cole I Wish

Steve Cole chooses Catherine Storr’s Marianne Dreams.
Hal's Reading Diary January 2012

Roger Mills on books v computer games.
January Good Reads

Reviews from Widcombe C of E Junior School, Bath.
Classics in Short No. 91

Brian Alderson on Erich Kästner’s Emil and the Detectives.
Life Beyond the Bunker

Susanne Winnacker’s The Other Life is sending shivers up the spine of diehard dystopian fiction fans. Damian Kelleher discovers why.
A Squash and a Squeeze: Sharing Stories with Julia Donaldson

Julia Donaldson interviewed about the Seven Stories exhibition A Squash and a Squeeze
Sally Nicholls on All Fall Down

Sally Nicholls on her new novel All Fall Down

Editor's Choice

The Highway Rat
Julia Donaldson
(Alison Green Books)
5

A comic homage to Alfred Noyes’s 1906 narrative poem ‘The Highwayman’, Julia Donaldson’s The Highway Rat echoes to dramatically witty effect Noyes’s rhythmic cadences (‘And the highwayman came riding— /Riding—riding— /The...

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New Talent

Lolly Luck
Ellie Daines
(Andersen Press)
4

It is on Lollyanna’s 11th birthday that things start to go wrong. Lolly has always thought of herself, fittingly since her surname is Luck, as a lucky person but even she cannot make everything good when her dad loses his job. Financial problems...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 192

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

Under 5s

  • Freight Train
    Donald Crews
    5

  • How Do You Feel?
    Anthony Browne
    5

  • The Highway Rat
    Julia Donaldson
    5

  • Lulu Reads to Zeki
    Anna McQuinn
    4

  • The Day the Gogglynipper Escaped
    James McKnight
    4

  • Has Anyone Seen My Chihuahua?

    Clare Wigfall
    4

  • Utterly Lovely One
    Mary Murphy
    4

  • Little Penguin Learns to Swim
    Eilidh Rose
    4

  • Chilly Milly Moo
    Fiona Ross
    3

  • Little Lion
    Lesley Beake
    3

  • Big Blue Engine
    Ken Wilson-Max
    3

  • The Three Sillies
    Tony Ross
    3

Ages 5-8

  • Sticky Ends
    Jeanne Willis
    5

  • The Pirates Next Door
    Jonny Duddle
    5

  • Pinkie Mouse, Where Are You?
    Alison Green
    4

  • The Barefoot Book of Mother and Daughter Tales
    Josephine Everts-Secker
    4

  • Fern and the Fiery Dragon
    Georgie Adams
    4

  • Number Rhymes Tens and Teens
    Opal Dunn
    4

  • Magic Beans. A Handful of Fairy Tales from the Storybag

    Various Authors
    3

  • Dirty Bertie: Snow!
    Alan MacDonald
    3

  • Bella Donna Witchling
    Ruth Symes
    3

  • The Pirate Suit
    Raewyn Caisley
    3

  • Me and My Family
    Jean Maye
    3

  • The Flute
    Rachna Gilmore
    3

Ages 8-10

  • The Sea Swallow
    Gareth Thompson
    5

  • Penny Dreadful is a Complete Catastrophe
    Joanna Nadin
    5

  • The Road to Stonehenge
    Jan Shirley
    4

  • Opal Moonbaby
    Maudie Smith
    4

  • Lolly Luck
    Ellie Daines
    4

  • The Wise Fool: Fables from the Islamic World
    Shahrukh Husain
    4

  • Nelson at Sea
    Simon Weston
    David Fitzgerald
    4

  • Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin Fever
    Jeff Kinney
    4

  • Mr Gum in the Hound of Lamonic Bibber

    Andy Stanton
    4

  • Scrum!
    Tom Palmer
    3

  • Blood Hound
    Tanya Landman
    3

  • The Peppers and the International Magic Guys
    Sian Pattenden
    3

  • To Be a Cat
    Matt Haig
    3

  • How the Olympics Came to Be
    Helen East
    2

  • Furball and the Mokes
    A N Wilson
    2

  • The Sewer Demon
    Caroline Lawrence
    2

  • Spaceheadz Save the World

    Jon Scieszka
    2

Ages 10-14

  • Into the Unknown
    Stewart Ross
    5

  • Dark Warning
    Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick
    5

  • The Kalevala: tales of magic and adventure

    Kirsti Makinen
    5

  • 15 Days Without a Head
    Dave Cousins
    5

  • Oliver Twisted
    J D Sharpe
    4

  • Far Rockaway
    Charlie Fletcher
    4

  • Hollow Earth
    John Barrowman
    4

  • Knowing Me, Knowing You
    Helen Bailey
    3

  • Psychosilly
    Alan Murphy
    3

  • Out of the Depths
    Cathy MacPhail
    3

  • Street of Tall People
    Alan Gibbons
    3

  • Cinder
    Marissa Meyer
    3

  • Out of this World
    Clive Gifford
    3

Ages 14+

  • The Song of Achilles
    Madeline Miller
    5

  • Virtuosity
    Jessica Martinez
    4

  • A Witch in Winter
    Ruth Warburton
    4

  • In Darkness
    Nick Lake
    4

  • Twisted Heart
    Eden Maguire
    4

  • Beat the Band
    Don Calame
    4

  • Code Name Verity
    Elizabeth Wein
    4

  • Torn
    Cat Clarke
    3

  • The Catastrophic History of You and Me
    Jess Rothenberg
    2

  • India Dark
    Kirsty Murray
    1

BfK News

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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CRESSIDA COWELL ANNOUNCED AS NEW WATERSTONES CHILDREN’S LAUREATE

‘Books are transformative because of their unique ability to develop three key magical powers: intelligence, creativity and, most important of all, empathy. Words are power; let’s take magic seriously.’ Cressida Cowell, Waterstones Children’s Laureate

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STEVEN CAMDEN WINS CLiPPA 2019

Steven Camden photo by Ellie Kurttz

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MUHAMMAD KHAN WINS 20TH BRANFORD BOASE AWARD

The winner of the 2019 Branford Boase Award for outstanding debut novel for children is Muhammad Khan for his YA novel I Am Thunder. Set up in memory of author Henrietta Branford and her editor Wendy Boase who both died in 1999, the award also recognizes his editor Lucy Pearse of Macmillan Children’s Books.

read more...
SLA School Librarian of the Year 2019 Announced

Ros Harding School Librarian of the Year

Ros Harding of The King’s School Chester has been awarded the honour of the School Librarian of the Year 2019. 2019 YA Book Prize winner Sara Barnard presented Ros Harding with her award at a special ceremony at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, Kensington, London Kensington on 27 June.

read more...
The Children's Book Award 2019

Earlier this month, Arree Chung was named overall winner of The Children’s Book Award 2019. His book Mixed, which he wrote and illustrated, also won the Books for Younger Children category before going on to win the overall prize.

read more...
WINNERS OF THE 2019 CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS

The winners of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced at a ceremony at The British Library, hosted by broadcaster and writer Konnie Huq.

read more...
BRANFORD BOASE AWARD SHORTLIST 2019

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

Branford Boase Award shortlist 2019

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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.

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