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Books for Keeps 209 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 209 - November 2014
BfK 209 November 2014

COVER STORY
This issue’s cover illustration is from Animalium (Welcome to the Museum) by Jenny Broom with illustrations by Katie Scott. Thanks to Big Picture Press for their help with this Christmas cover.

Digital Edition
By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of BfK 209 November 2014 .

BfK No. 209 Articles

Editorial 209

Comment from the editor
Books of the Year 2014

Chosen by leading children’s booksellers.
Books for Giving Christmas 2014

Our selection of the best Christmas gift books.
Books for Giving 2014: Book List

Bibliographic details for our best books for giving Christmas 2014
Windows into Illustration: Chris Riddel

Chris Riddell on The Sleeper and the Spindle
Ten of the Best: Traditional Tales retold

chosen by Pam Dix.
Authorgraph 209: Marcus Sedgwick

The author of The Ghosts of Heaven interviewed by Nicholas Tucker
Jacqueline Wilson: happy 100th book

Julia Eccleshare appraises Jacqueline Wilson
Nina Macdonald’s War-Time Nursery Rhymes

WW1 literature for children put into context by Geoff Fox.
Two Children Tell: The Author and Nicholas

Virginia Lowe's observations on children's realy response to stories.
Mutiny and murder for Christmas

Treasure Island at the National Theatre
I Wish I'd Written: Kate Saunders

Kate Saunders on a deliciously creepy book.
Good Reads 209

Chosen by pupils at Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School, Barrow in Furness, Cumbria.
That’s Edutainment

An introduction to the QED list
Robert Louis Stevenson: The Shadow of Long John Silver

Angeline B. Adams and Remco van Straten discover Treasure Island in Edinburgh's Old Town.
Classics in Short Number 108

Where's Spot? asks Brian Alderson
KATE SAUNDERS COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD WINNER

Costa Children's Book Award winner Kate Saunders interviewed by Imogen Russell Williams.
Q&A interview with Garth Jennings, author of The Deadly 7

Editor's Choice

The Grimm Conclusion
Adam Gidwitz
(Andersen)
5

Those who have been following Adam Gidwitz's take on the Grimms' tales will know what to expect – mayhem, madness and a great deal of blood. Nor will they be disappointed by the conclusion to the trilogy. New readers may want to start at the...

read more

New Talent

Snow de la Mare and Rabei
Walter de la Mare
(Faber & Faber)
5

Taking de la Mare's poem Snow, Carolina Rabei has imagined a white Christmas setting, in which the snow falls and the world becomes a glittering wonderland where children can build snowmen and sledge. Stockings are hung in front...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 209

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

Under 5s

  • Snow de la Mare and Rabei
    Walter de la Mare
    5

  • Alfie in the Garden
    Debi Gliori
    5

  • This Book Just Ate my Dog!
    Richard Byrne
    5

  • Jampires
    Sarah McIntyre
    David O’Connell
    4

  • Rita’s Rhino
    Tony Ross
    4

  • Bella’s Bad Hair Day
    Stephen Michael King
    4

  • My Big Barefoot Book of Wonderful Words
    Sophie Fatus
    4

  • Worst in Show
    William Bee
    4

  • Melissa’s Octopus and Other Unsuitable Pets
    Charlotte Voake
    4

Ages 5-8

  • Something about a Bear
    Jackie Morris
    5

  • Gravity
    Jason Chin
    5

  • Timmy Failure: We Meet Again
    Stephan Pastis
    4

  • The New Small Person
    Lauren Child
    4

  • The Moon Dragons
    Dyan Sheldon
    4

  • Big Bad Bubble
    Adam Rubin
    4

  • Woozy the Wizard: A Spell to Get Well
    Elli Woollard
    3

  • Horace the Haggis and the Christmas Mystery
    Sally Magnusson
    3

Ages 8-10

  • Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor
    Jon Scieszka
    5

  • My Life As a Goldfish
    Rachel Rooney
    5

  • Half a Man
    Michael Morpurgo
    5

  • Atlas of Adventures
    Lucy Letherland
    4

  • Dead or Alive?
    Clive Gifford
    4

  • Witchworld
    Emma Fischel
    4

  • Pathfinder
    Angie Sage
    4

  • Lucy’s Secret Reindeer
    Anne Booth
    4

  • Moone Boy: The Blunder Years
    Chris O’Dowd
    Nick V Murphy
    3

  • Pete and the Five-a-side Vampires
    Malachy Doyle
    3

  • The Day No One Was Angry
    Toon Tellegen
    3

  • Plum Puddings and Paper Moons
    Glenda Millard
    3

Ages 10-14

  • Give the Ball to the Poet – A New Anthology of Caribbean Poetry
    5

  • Malala The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Changed the World
    Malala Yousafzai
    5

  • Blue Moon Day
    Anne Fine
    5

  • Loyal Creatures
    Morris Gleitzman
    5

  • Trouble on Cable Street
    Joan Lingard
    5

  • Young Sherlock: Stone Cold
    Andrew Lane
    5

  • Dragon Racer: First Flight
    Margaret Bateson-Hill
    5

  • Only Remembered
    4

  • The Sign of the Black Dagger
    Joan Lingard
    4

  • How to be a Girl
    Anita Naik
    4

  • First Light
    Rebecca Stead
    4

  • Girl Online
    4

  • Uprooted: A Canadian War Story
    Lynne Reid Banks
    3

  • The Last of the Spirits
    Chris Priestley
    3

Ages 14+

  • Half a Creature from the Sea
    David Almond
    5

  • Lies We Tell Ourselves
    Robin Talley
    5

  • A Song for Ella Grey
    David Almond
    5

  • Stories Inspired by Objects from The Great War
    Various Authors
    4

  • Terror Kid
    Benjamin Zephaniah
    4

  • Thirteen Chairs
    Dave Shelton
    4

  • Messenger of Fear
    Michael Grant
    4

  • Winter's Bullet
    William Osborne
    4

  • Girl Online
    4

  • The Walled City
    Ryan Graudin
    3

Books About Children's Books

  • Help Your Child Love Reading
    Alison David
    3

BfK News

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...
SHORTLISTS ANNOUNCED FOR BLUE PETER BOOK AWARDS

The shortlists have been announced for the 2019 Blue Peter Book Awards. They are:

Best book with facts

The Element in the Room by Mike Barfield and illustrated by Lauren Humphry, Laurence King Publishing

The Colours of History by Clive Gifford and Marc-Etienne Peintre, QED Publishing

Professor Astro Cat's Human Body Odyssey by Dominic Walliman and Ben Newman, Flying Eye Books

read more...
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