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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

2019 ALCS EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD SHORTLIST

Shortlist announced for the UK’s only award for creative educational writing

The Society of Authors and the Authors’ Licensing& Collecting Society have announced the shortlist for the 2019 ALCS Educational Writers’ Award, the UK’s only award for educational writing which stimulates and enhances the learning experience.

read more...
‘INSPIRING’: CONTENDERS FOR THE 2020 BLUE PETER BOOK AWARDS REVEALED

Blue Peter Book Award logo

Six books have made it onto the shortlists for the 2020 Blue Peter Book Awards. There are two categories: Best Story, and – in non-fiction November – Best Book with Facts.

read more...
NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2020 CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS

And we’re off… the nominations for the 2020 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are announced today, Monday 4th November.

read more...
2020 UKLA BOOK AWARDS THE LONGLISTS

UKLA Awards

A record number of submissions and a new category to highlight information books marks the 12th longlists for the UKLA Awards, the only national awards judged by active classroom teachers.

read more...
JESSICA LOVE NAMED WINNER OF THE KLAUS FLUGGE PRIZE 2019 FOR JULIAN IS A MERMAID

Jessica Love

read more...
LOLLIES 2020 SHORTLIST THE YEAR’S FUNNIEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Michael Rosen, children’s novelist, poet and former Children’s Laureate, has announced the shortlist for the 2020 Laugh Out Loud Awards (The Lollies), the awards that celebrate the funniest children’s books.

Lollies logo

read more...
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

read more...
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

read more...
STEVEN CAMDEN WINS CLiPPA 2019

Steven Camden photo by Ellie Kurttz

read more...
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