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Books for Keeps 204 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 204 - January 2014
BfK 204

This issue’s cover illustration is from Finding Jennifer Jones by Anne Cassidy. Thanks to Hot Key Books for their help with this January cover and to Atom for their support of the Authorgraph interview with Keren David.

Digital Edition
By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of BfK 204 January 2014 .

BfK No. 204 Articles

Editorial 204

Editorial
From the horse’s mouth - Books of the Year 2014

The editors' picks for 2014
Authorgraph 204: Keren David

Authorgraph 204: Keren David interviewed by Damian Kelleher
Adventure stories - alive and kicking in the 21st century?

Is the adventure story thriving? Geraldine Brennan investigates.
John Connolly: bells, books and scandals

John Connolly on his children's series Samuel Johnson
Windows into Illustration: Elys Dolan

Weasels, weasels everywhere: Elys Dolan on her debut picturebook
Ten of the Best: books with a theme of disability

Rebecca Butler chooses ten excellent books
Whatever happened to Jennifer Jones?

Anne Cassidy returns to the story of Jennifer Jones
Books for Keeps Brilliant Bookshops: Formby Books

BfK’s Brilliant Bookshops Formby Books
I Wish I'd Written by Chris Riddell

Chris Riddell on a fortunate discovery.
Good Reads chosen by students at Enfield's Oasis Academy

Readers at Oasis Academy Enfield choose their Good Reads
Briefing 204

News and Awards
Two Children Tell: The Egg and Nicholas

First in a new series by Virginia Lowe on children's early response to stories.
Classics in Short Number 103: Three Royal Monkeys

Brian Alderson on a fraught journey to the Courts of Assasimmon.
Erik Blegvad, illustrator, March 3, 1923 to January 14, 2014

Nicholas Tucker remembers the illustrator Eric Begvad.
Q&A Interview with Rupert Wallis

Rupert Wallis talks about his debut novel The Dark Inside.
CURIOUS FOX IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Happy birthday, Curious Fox.
A Q&A interview with Steven Camden

Steven Camden talks about his novel Tape.
Extract Dream On, Amber by Emma Shevah
ROBERT MUCHAMORE INTERVIEW

Robert Muchamore on his new book Rock War.

Editor's Choice

Knightley & Son
Rohan Gavin
(Bloomsbury Childrens)
4

Meet Darkus, the latest in a line of boy detectives. He comes with excellent credentials. His father, Marcus Knightley, is a special investigator and Darkus has inherited his gifts. Unfortunately, Marcus has been in a coma for the past four years...

read more

New Talent

Tape
Steven Camden
(HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks)
4

I’m of the generation who painstakingly recorded their favourite songs onto cassette tapes, and used them as love letters. For me, there’ll always be something romantic and hopeful about those little plastic oblongs and their spools of shiny...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 204

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

Under 5s

  • Mr Wuffles!
    David Wiesner
    5

  • Crayon
    Simon Rickerty
    5

  • Z is for Moose
    Kelly Bingham
    5

  • Meet the Parents
    Peter Bently
    5

  • Max and the Won’t Go to Bed Show
    Mark Sperring
    5

  • Monkey Business
    Smriti Prasadam-Halls
    David Wojtowycz
    4

  • The Slightly Annoying Elephant
    David Walliams
    4

  • I love you, too!
    Michael Foreman
    4

  • Star Girl
    Karin Littlewood
    4

  • Dumper Truck Dash
    Peter Bently
    4

  • Yikes Stinkysaurus
    Pamela Butchart
    4

  • Princess Penelope and the Runaway Kitten
    Alison Murray
    3

  • Doug, the Bug that went Boing
    Sue Hendra
    3

  • A Deal’s a Deal
    Stephanie Blake
    3

Ages 5-8

  • Mi and Museum City
    Linda Sarah
    5

  • Peter and the Wolf
    Sergei Prokofiev
    5

  • A Mammoth in the Fridge
    Michaël Escoffier
    5

  • While He was Sleeping
    Ayano Imai
    3

  • Twit: The owl who wasn’t wise
    Steve Cole
    3

  • Crocodiles are the best animals of all
    Sean Taylor
    3

  • Alonzo and the Meteorite: The Adventures of Alonzo the Chicken

    Debbie Kelly
    3

  • Send for a Superhero!
    Michael Rosen
    3

Ages 8-10

  • East of the Sun, West of the Moon
    Jackie Morris
    5

  • Waffle Hearts: Lena and Me in Mathildewick Cove
    Maria Parr
    5

  • Rules of Summer
    Shaun Tan
    5

  • The Brothers Grimm: Folk Tales
    Brian Alderson
    5

  • The Adventures of Shola
    Bernado Atxaga
    5

  • The Ghastly McNastys: The Lost Treasure of Little Snoring
    Lyn Gardner
    Ros Asquith
    5

  • The Legend of Frog
    Guy Bass
    4

  • Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face and the badness of badgers
    John Dougherty
    4

  • Penelope Crumb Never Forgets
    Shaun K Stout
    4

  • Boffin Brainchild
    Jill Jennings
    3

  • Screaming Sands: The Day the Donkey Dropped Dead
    Sam Hay
    3

Ages 10-14

  • East of the Sun, West of the Moon
    Jackie Morris
    5

  • The Ransom of Dond
    Siobhan Dowd
    5

  • Line of Fire Diary of an Unknown Soldier
    Barroux
    5

  • The Boy on the Porch
    Sharon Creech
    5

  • The Lost Journals of Benjamin Tooth
    Mackenzie Crook
    4

  • My Brother's Shadow
    Tom Avery
    4

  • Knightley & Son
    Rohan Gavin
    4

  • The Amazing Tale of Ali Pasha
    Michael Foreman
    4

  • Lizzy Bennet’s Diary
    Marcia Williams
    4

  • The Executioner’s Daughter
    Jane Hardstaff
    4

  • Jake and Lily
    Jerry Spinelli
    4

  • Boys don't Knit
    T S Easton
    4

  • A Room full of Chocolate
    Jane Elson
    4

  • The Spook's Revenge
    Joseph Delaney
    4

Ages 14+

  • Running Girl
    Simon Mason
    5

  • Witch Finder
    Ruth Warburton
    4

  • Tape
    Steven Camden
    4

  • When Mr Dog Bites
    Brian Conaghan
    4

  • Salvage
    Keren David
    4

  • Just One Year
    Gayle Forman
    4

  • Dead Ends
    Erin Lange
    4

Books About Children's Books

  • Roald Dahl (New Casebooks)
    Ann Alston
    Catherine Butler
    5

BfK News

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...
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...
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