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BfK No. 220 - September 2016
BfK 220 September 2016

This issue’s cover illustration is from Thank You, Mr Panda by Steve Antony. Thanks to Hodder Children’s Books for their help with this cover.
Digital Edition
By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of BfK 220 September 2016 .

BfK No. 220 Articles

Editorial 220

Comment from the editor
Am I Normal? Exploring mental health issues in YA fiction

Author Holly Bourne on the way YA fiction addresses mental health
Reading Gladiators

Nikki Gamble on a scheme to encourage high attainers
The Wonder of Wilson

Rebecca Butler in conversation with Jacqueline Wilson
Windows into Illustration: Helen Hancocks

It’s raining dogs for Helen Hancocks
Authorgraph Steve Antony

Steve Antony interviewed by Michelle Pauli
Visual Literacy: reading the signs

Piet Grobler on visual codes and symbols in picture books
Ten of the Best Heirs to Roald Dahl

chosen by Nicholas Tucker
Dig into the Story on Scoop

Introducing Scoop the new magazine for children
Independence day

Imogen Russell Williams on books for independent readers
Two Children Tell: Rebecca and Literary Language

Rebecca’s literary language
I Wish I’d Written: Katherine Rundell

The author of The Wolf Wilder chooses Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Introducing the new words & pictures list from Quarto

Quarto’s new list impresses Margaret Mallett
Classics in Short No 118 Old Possum and his Cats

If Or Perhaps Or But: Old Possum and his Cats
AN INTERVIEW WITH JANE HISSEY

Jane Hissey talks Old Bear with Ferelith Hordon.
AN INTERVIEW WITH KLAUS FLUGGE PRIZE WINNER NICHOLAS JOHN FRITH

The winer of the inaugural Klaus Flugge Prize talks to Michelle Pauli
AN INTERVIEW WITH SANTA MONTEFIORE

Santa Montefiore introduces The Royal Rabbits of London.
AN INTERVIEW WITH LEIGH HOBBS, AUSTRALIAN CHILDREN’S LAUREATE

Ferelith Hordon chats to the creator of Old Tom, Mr Chicken and Mr Badger

Editor's Choice

Hiding Heidi
Fiona Woodcock
(Simon & Schuster Children's UK)
0

Heidi has a special talent, and the young reader meeting Heidi as she lies on the sofa will quickly guess what it is; Heidi is good at hiding. Her clothes always match her background. However, always being the best can prove unsatisfactory....

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New Talent

Cogheart
Peter Bunzl
(Usborne Publishing Ltd)
4

When Lily’s deportment teacher confiscates the magazine she’s reading telling her it has no educational value at all Lily replies, ‘It teaches piracy and air combat.’ ‘And what young lady needs to know that?’ asks her teacher. Actually it turns...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 220

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

Under 5s

  • There's an Owl in my Towel
    Julia Donaldson
    5

  • Animal Surprises
    Nicola Davies
    5

  • The Lonely Giant
    Sophie Ambrose
    5

  • Watch out for Muddy Puddles
    Ben Faulks
    4

  • Nothing! Yasmeen Ismail
    Yasmeen Ismail
    4

  • The Greedy Goat
    Petr Horácek
    4

  • Hiding Heidi
    Fiona Woodcock
    0

Ages 5-8

  • Oi Dog!
    Kes Gray
    Claire Gray
    5

  • D is for Duck
    David Melling
    5

  • Don’t Cross the Line!
    Isabel Minhós Martins
    5

  • Billy Button: Telegram Boy
    Sally Nicholls
    5

  • The Cat and the King
    Nick Sharratt
    5

  • Paws McDraw
    Connah Brecon
    4

  • Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam The Diamond Chase
    Tracey Corderoy
    4

  • The Truth According to Arthur
    Tim Hopgood
    4

  • Dog on a Digger
    Kate Prendergast
    3

  • The Secret Railway
    Wendy Meddour
    3

Ages 8-10

  • The Great Fire of London
    Emma Adams
    5

  • Cats and Curses: Marsh Road Mysteries
    Elen Caldecott
    4

  • Cogheart
    Peter Bunzl
    4

  • The Racehorse Who Wouldn’t Gallop
    Clare Balding
    4

  • Crimson Poison
    Susan Moore
    4

  • In Focus: 101 Close-ups, Cross sections, Cutaways
    Libby Walden
    4

  • Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World
    Kate Pankhurst
    4

  • Invisible Inc.
    Steve Cole
    4

  • The Accidental Pirates Voyage to Magical North
    Claire Fayers
    4

  • Missing Arabella
    Kathryn Siebel
    3

Ages 10-14

  • Binny Bewitched
    Hilary McKay
    5

  • Geis: A Matter of Life and Death
    Alexis Deacon
    5

  • The Bone Sparrow
    Zana Fraillon
    5

  • The Creeping Shadow
    Jonathan Stroud
    5

  • A Very Good Chance
    Sarah Moore Fitzgerald
    5

  • Time after Time
    Judi Curtin
    5

  • A Child of Books
    Oliver Jeffers
    Sam Winston
    4

  • Born Scared
    Kevin Brooks
    4

  • Swimming to the Moon
    Jane Elson
    4

  • The Wrong Train
    Jeremy De Quidt
    4

  • Lydia. The Wild Girl of Pride & Prejudice
    Natasha Farrant
    4

  • Booked
    Kwame Alexander
    4

  • Kings of the Boyne
    Nicola Pierce
    4

Ages 14+

  • The Stars at Oktober Bend
    Glenda Millard
    5

  • What’s a Girl Gotta Do?
    Holly Bourne
    5

  • Beck
    Mal Peet
    Meg Rosoff
    5

  • Bad Blood: Part 1
    Jane Brittan
    5

  • Here I Stand: Stories that Speak for Freedom
    Amnesty International
    4

  • How Not To Disappear
    Clare Furniss
    4

  • Cuckoo
    Keren David
    4

  • Nothing Tastes as Good
    Claire Hennessy
    4

BfK News

BRANFORD BOASE AWARD SHORTLIST 2019

The children’s authors to watch: shortlist for the 2019 Branford Boase Award announced

Branford Boase Award shortlist 2019

read more...
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...
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