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Books for Keeps 216 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 216 - January 2016
BfK 216 January 2016

This issue’s cover illustration is from Elmer’s Little Library by David McKee. Thanks to Andersen Press for their help with this cover.

Digital Edition
By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of BfK 216 January 2016 .

BfK No. 216 Articles

Editorial 216

by Ferelith Hordon
Reading the Way: Inclusive Books from Around the World

Dr. Rebecca Butler reports
2016: the books to watch! (publishers A - M)

Leading children's publishers look ahead.
2016: the books to watch! (publishers O - Z)

Leading children's editors look ahead
Windows into illustration: Michael Foreman

A life in pictures
Authorgraph 216 Caroline Binch

Caroline Binch interviewed by Tricia Kings
Ten of the Best Books to boost empathy

Sarah Mears of EmpathyLab chooses
Visual Literacy: flying to another place

by Piet Grobler
Andersen Press - Forty Years Young

Venerable publisher Klaus Flugge interviewed by Joy Court
Peter Dickinson Obituary

Peter Dickinson remembered by Ferelith Hordon
I Wish I’d Written: Jonathan Stroud

Jonathan Stroud chooses one of the finest post-war British fantasies.
Good Reads 216

Chosen by pupils at Aith Junior School, Shetland
The Art of Writing a Novel

by Lisa Williamson
Two Children Tell: Nick And Humour ‘That’s a funny one’

Nick and humour
An introduction to Tiny Owl

Jill Bennett on new publisher Tiny Owl
Classics in Short No 115: Poor Cecco

The cleverest of all the toys
Wild Lily Chapter One

Chapter One from Wild Lily by K M Peyton.
PERDITA AND HONOR CARGILL: AUTHORS OF WAITING FOR CALLBACK

An interview with the mother and daughter writing team.
A Q&A INTERVIEW WITH KNIGHTLEY AND SON AUTHOR ROHAN GAVIN

The author answers our questions
AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP WOMACK

The author of The Double Axe on reinventing Greek myth
AN INTERVIEW WITH ROSS MONTGOMERY

Imogen Russell Williams asks the questions.
A Q&A INTERVIEW WITH GWENDA BOND

The author of Lois Lane Fallout answers our questions.

Editor's Choice

The Pushcart War
Jean Merrill
(New York Review Books/Children's Collection)
4

The streets of New York are crowded - pedestrians, cars and the pushcarts - the mobile stalls selling anything from doorknobs to pretzels - and trucks. That’s the problem. There are too many trucks (lorries) that are getting bigger and bigger....

read more

New Talent

Beautiful Broken Things
Sara Barnard
(Macmillan Children's Books)
5

Caddie (short for Cadnam; don't ask!) and Rosie are best friends. Truly best friends though they now go to different schools. Then Suzanne arrives in Rosie's class - beautiful, dazzling, outrageous and troubled Suzanne. Can three girls be best...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 216

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

Under 5s

  • Walter’s Wonderful Web
    Tim Hopgood
    5

  • Say It!
    Charlotte Zolotow
    5

  • The Red Prince
    Charlie Roscoe
    5

  • The Queen’s Handbag
    Steve Antony
    5

  • Have you seen Elephant?
    David Barrow
    4

  • My Hand
    Satoshi Kitamura
    4

  • Stanley the Amazing Knitting Cat
    Emily Mackenzie
    4

  • Go Home, Little One
    Cate James
    3

  • Fairy Tales for Mr Barker
    Jessica Ahlberg
    3

Ages 5-8

  • Deep in the Woods
    Christopher Corr
    5

  • Animal Camouflage: Search and Find
    Sam Hutchinson
    5

  • Blue Penguin
    Petr Horácek
    5

  • Den Building: Creating Imaginative Spaces Using Almost Anything
    Jane Hewitt
    Cathy Cross
    5

  • Lafcadio, The Lion Who Shot Back
    Shel Silverstein
    4

  • Pablo & Jane and the Hot Air Contraption
    Jose Domingo
    4

  • Stanley the Amazing Knitting Cat
    Emily Mackenzie
    4

  • Dragon White
    Shoo Rayner
    3

Ages 8-10

  • Clare and her Captain
    Michael Morpurgo
    5

  • The Seal’s Fate
    Eoin Colfer
    5

  • The Pushcart War
    Jean Merrill
    4

  • The Storm Leopards
    Holly Webb
    4

  • The Dog Ray
    Linda Coggin
    4

  • Confessions of an Imaginary Friend: A Memoir by Jacques Papier
    Michelle Cuevas
    4

  • Lift-the-Flap Computers and Coding
    Rosie Dickins
    4

  • Jack Dash and the Magic Feather
    Sophie Plowden
    4

  • Dragon White
    Shoo Rayner
    3

  • Gulliver
    Mary Webb
    3

Ages 10-14

  • Anyone But Ivy Pocket
    Caleb Krisp
    5

  • Twenty Questions for Gloria
    Martyn Bedford
    5

  • How to Look For a Lost Dog
    Ann M Martin
    5

  • The ACB with Honora Lee
    Kate De Goldi
    5

  • Baker’s Magic
    Diane Zahler
    5

  • The Story of Antigone
    Ali Smith
    5

  • The Monkey’s Secret
    Gennifer Choldenko
    5

  • Never Evers
    Tom Ellen
    Lucy Ivison
    4

  • The Icarus Show
    Sally Christie
    4

  • Waiting for Callback
    Perdita Cargill
    Honor Cargill
    4

  • 3 of a Kind
    Rohan Gavin
    4

  • Hell and High Water
    Tanya Landman
    3

Ages 14+

  • Beautiful Broken Things
    Sara Barnard
    5

  • Anything That Isn’t This
    Chris Priestley
    5

  • Illuminae
    Jay Kristoff
    Amie Kaufman
    5

  • Silence is Goldfish
    Annabel Pitcher
    4

  • Wild Lily
    K M Peyton
    4

  • Zeroes
    Scott Westerfeld
    Margo Lanagan
    Deborah Biancotti
    4

  • What We Left Behind
    Robin Talley
    4

  • Faceless
    Alyssa Sheinmel
    4

  • Waiting for Callback
    Perdita Cargill
    Honor Cargill
    4

  • Anna and the Swallow Man
    Gavriel Savit
    4

  • Boy23
    Jim Carrington
    3

  • Captive
    A.J.Grainger
    3

BfK News

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...
PATRICE LAWRENCE AND DARREN CHETTY TO JUDGE 2019 LITTLE REBELS AWARD

Little Rebels prize logoAward-winning YA author Patrice Lawrence and Books for Keeps contributor Darren Chetty have been named as judges of the 2019 Little Rebels Award. The Little Rebels Award celebrates children’s books for readers age 0-12 which promote social equality and social justice.

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...
NOMINATIONS PUBLISHED FOR THE CILIP CARNEGIE & KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS 2019

Nominations have been published for the CILIP Carnegie Medal and the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal, the country's oldest children’s book awards.

read more...
‘SHARE A STORY’ AT THE HEART OF WORLD BOOK DAY 2019

Lauren Child WBD coverSnap by Patrice Lawrence

read more...
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