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Books for Keeps 192 - the children's book magazine online

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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

SHORTLISTS FOR THE 2020 CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS ANNOUNCED

CILIP CKG logo

The shortlists for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, the UK’s oldest book awards for children and young people, have been announced. Selected by Youth Librarians from the 20 strong longlists there are eight books on each of the two lists.

read more...
SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD 2020

Children's Book Award

The shortlist for the Children’s Book Award 2020 has been announced. This is the award’s 40th Anniversary year and it remains the only national award for children’s books that is voted for entirely by children. To mark the award’s 40th Anniversary, a new category on the shortlist celebrates the most popular books for teens.

read more...
NEW FUNDING FOR THE LITTLE REBELS AWARD

The Little Rebels Award for Radical Children’s Fiction has been boosted thanks to £3,500 in new funding from the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust, bringing the award’s prize money up to £2,000.

Little Rebels logo

read more...
LONGLISTS ANNOUNCED FOR 2020 CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS

CKG logo

The longlists for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, the UK’s oldest book awards for children and young people, have been announced.

read more...
LONGLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2020 KLAUS FLUGGE PRIZE

The longlist for the 2020 Klaus Flugge Prize has been announced. Now in its fifth year, the Klaus Flugge Prize is awarded to the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s picture book illustration. It honours Klaus Flugge, founder of publisher Andersen Press and a supremely influential figure in picture books.

Look Up!

read more...
WHO WON THE LAUGH OUT LOUD BOOK AWARDS?

The winners of the Laugh Out Loud Book Awards 2020 have just been announced.

read more...
BRANFORD BOASE AWARD 2020: LONGLIST ANNOUNCED

Branford Boase Award logo

read more...
EMPATHYLAB ANNOUNCES 2020 READ FOR EMPATHY BOOK COLLECTION

Raising A Generation of Empathic Citizens

Empathy Day logo

read more...
JASBINDER BILAN WINS COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD WITH HER DEBUT NOVEL

Jasbinder Bilan

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COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD 2019: SHORTLIST FEATURES

Former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman and acclaimed author Jenny Downham are on the shortlist for the 2019 Costa Children’s Book Award alongside newcomers Jasbinder Bilan and Nicholas Downing.

Costa Book Awards logo

Click the links below to read new Books for Keeps feature articles on each of the shortlisted authors.

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