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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.

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.

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...

read more

New Talent

Lolly Luck

Ellie Daines
(Andersen)
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...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 192

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

Under 5s

  • The Highway Rat

    Julia Donaldson
    5
  • Freight Train

    Donald Crews
    5
  • How Do You Feel?

    Anthony Browne
    5
  • The Day the Gogglynipper Escaped

    James McKnight
    4
  • Utterly Lovely One

    Mary Murphy
    4
  • Little Penguin Learns to Swim

    Eilidh Rose
    4
  • Lulu Reads to Zeki

    Anna McQuinn
    4
  • Cuddle Bear

    Claire Freedman
    4
  • Has Anyone Seen My Chihuahua?

    Clare Wigfall
    4
  • The Three Sillies

    Tony Ross
    3
  • Chilly Milly Moo

    Fiona Ross
    3
  • Little Lion

    Lesley Beake
    3
  • Big Blue Engine

    Ken Wilson-Max
    3

Ages 5-8

  • The Pirates Next Door

    Jonny Duddle
    5
  • Sticky Ends

    Jeanne Willis
    5
  • Dog Loves Drawing

    Louise Yates
    5
  • Fern and the Fiery Dragon

    Georgie Adams
    4
  • Number Rhymes Tens and Teens

    Opal Dunn
    4
  • Pinkie Mouse, Where Are You?

    Alison Green
    4
  • The Barefoot Book of Mother and Daughter Tales

    Josephine Everts-Secker
    4
  • Bella Donna Witchling

    Ruth Symes
    3
  • The Flute

    Rachna Gilmore
    3
  • Thomas Has Autism

    Jillian Powell
    3
  • Magic Beans. A Handful of Fairy Tales from the Storybag

    Various Authors
    3
  • The Pirate Suit

    Raewyn Caisley
    3
  • Dirty Bertie: Snow!

    Alan MacDonald
    3
  • Me and My Family

    Jean Maye
    3

Ages 8-10

  • Penny Dreadful is a Complete Catastrophe

    Joanna Nadin
    5
  • The Sea Swallow

    Gareth Thompson
    5
  • The Flask

    Nicky Singer
    5
  • Mr Gum in the Hound of Lamonic Bibber

    Andy Stanton
    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
  • The Road to Stonehenge

    Jan Shirley
    4
  • Opal Moonbaby

    Maudie Smith
    4
  • My Tourist Guide to the Solar System and Beyond

    Lewis Dartnell
    4
  • Lolly Luck

    Ellie Daines
    4
  • The Peppers and the International Magic Guys

    Sian Pattenden
    3
  • The Court Painter’s Apprentice

    Richard Knight
    3
  • Scrum!

    Tom Palmer
    3
  • Blood Hound

    Tanya Landman
    3
  • To Be a Cat

    Matt Haig
    3
  • The Sewer Demon

    Caroline Lawrence
    2
  • Spaceheadz Save the World

    Jon Scieszka
    2
  • Furball and the Mokes

    A N Wilson
    2
  • How the Olympics Came to Be

    Helen East
    2

Ages 10-14

  • The Kalevala: tales of magic and adventure

    Kirsti Makinen
    5
  • Into the Unknown

    Stewart Ross
    5
  • Dark Warning

    Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick
    5
  • 15 Days Without a Head

    Dave Cousins
    5
  • A Vicarage Family: A Biography of Myself

    Noel Streatfeild
    4
  • Everneath

    Brodi Ashton
    4
  • Far Rockaway

    Charlie Fletcher
    4
  • Oliver Twisted

    J D Sharpe
    4
  • Hollow Earth

    John Barrowman
    4
  • Cinder

    Marissa Meyer
    3
  • Psychosilly

    Alan Murphy
    3
  • Out of the Depths

    Cathy MacPhail
    3
  • Out of this World

    Clive Gifford
    3
  • Street of Tall People

    Alan Gibbons
    3
  • Brave New Girl

    Catherine Johnson
    3
  • Knowing Me, Knowing You

    Helen Bailey
    3

Ages 14+

  • This is Not Forgiveness

    Celia Rees
    5
  • The Song of Achilles

    Madeline Miller
    5
  • In Darkness

    Nick Lake
    4
  • Wyrmeweald: Bloodhoney

    Paul Stewart
    4
  • Code Name Verity

    Elizabeth Wein
    4
  • Virtuosity

    Jessica Martinez
    4
  • Twisted Heart

    Eden Maguire
    4
  • A Witch in Winter

    Ruth Warburton
    4
  • Beat the Band

    Don Calame
    4
  • Torn

    Cat Clarke
    3
  • The Catastrophic History of You and Me

    Jess Rothenberg
    2
  • India Dark

    Kirsty Murray
    1

BfK News

Transfer for Once Upon A Wartime exhibition

The Once Upon A Wartime exhibition is now at IWM North Manchester, until 2 September 2012

Based on five war-based children’s novels, the exhibition explores the history of real life conflicts from 1914 to the present day through the eyes of fictional children.

Read Kate Agnew’s Books for Keeps review of the exhibition here.

read more...
2012 Henrietta Branford Writing Competition

Branford Boase logoOf course we won’t get caught,’ I insisted, hoping my voice wouldn’t give away the secret hope that we would.

Budding young writers are now invited to enter this year’s Henrietta Branford Writing Competition.

read more...
New Sebastian Walker Award

Heidi Deedman image

read more...
33rd IBBY International Congress London 23 – 26 August: programme announced

IBBY CongressThe full programme for the 33rd IBBY International Congress has been announced and is now available to read at www.ibbycongress2012.org/programme-outline.php The Congress will take place in London this summer, 23 – 26 August.

read more...
Unlocking Hot Key Books

Sarah OdedinaFormerly Publishing Director of Bloomsbury Children’s Books, Sarah Odedina is the founder of a new children’s publisher, Hot Key Books. Graham Marks interviewed Sarah for Books for Keeps.

read more...
Behind the Bookshelf competition winners

Congratulations to the following Books for Keeps readers who are winners in our recent Behind the Bookshelf competition.

Bridget March of King’s School in Bruton, Somerset

Jayne Gould of Broke Hall Community Primary School, in Ipswich, Suffolk

Laura Taylor of City of London Academy, Southwark, London

They have each won a year’s subscription to Behind the Bookshelf with full access to the video library and the BtB lesson creator.

read more...
Obituary: Ronald Searle (3 March 1920– 30 December 2011)

One of Ronald Searle's war time drawingsOne of the UK’s major satirical draughtsmen of the second half of the 20th century, Ronald Searle has died at the age of 91.

read more...
A Passion for Picture books

‘Although interest in the art of the picture book seems to have grown greatly in recent years, study of the field has remained polarised in its nature and perceptions,’ claim the authors of an important new book, Children’s Picturebooks: The art of visual storytelling.

Books for Keeps invited co-writers Martin Salisbury and Morag Styles to explain their aim to bring together ideas from the world of literature and education with ideas from the field of art and design.

read more...
BLOOD RED ROAD WINS 2011 COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD

For the second year in succession, a debut novel has won the Costa Children’s Book Award. The 2011 prize went to Jason Wallace for his novel Out of Shadows; this year’s prize has gone to Moira Young for her book Blood Red Road.

Set in a dystopian future world, Blood Red Road tells the story of 18-year-old Saba, a tough young woman who embarks on an epic quest to rescue her twin brother when he is kidnapped by four mysterious horsemen.

read more...
Behind the Bookshelf

A new way of bringing authors into the classroom – and a special competition for Books for Keeps readers.

read more...
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