Home
  • Home
  • Latest Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Authors & Artists
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Forums
  • Search

Books for Keeps 220 - the children's book magazine online

  • View
  • Rearrange

Digital version – browse, print or download

Can't see the preview?
Click here!

How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.

BfK Newsletter

Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!

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....

read more

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...

read more

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

NEW CROWD-FUNDED CHILDREN’S BOOK TO RETELL BRITAIN’S OLDEST STORIES

Children’s Laureate of Wales, Eloise Williams and author Matt Brown have launched a new crowdfunded project, The Mab.

The Mab

read more...
LOOK UP! WINNERS OF THE WATERSTONES CHILDREN’S BOOK PRIZE 2020 NAMED

WCBP logo 2020

read more...
THE 2020 LITTLE REBELS AWARD SHORTLIST

The shortlist for the 2020 Little Rebels Award has been announced. The Little Rebels Award celebrates children’s fiction which challenges stereotypes, promotes social justice and advocates for a more peaceful and fairer world.

Little Rebels logo 2020

read more...
UKLA BOOK AWARD WINNERS 2020

The winners of the 2020 UKLA Book Awards have been announced.

UKLA award

The UKLA Book Awards are the only awards to be judged entirely by teachers and highlight texts that can ‘enhance all aspects of literacy learning’.

read more...
WINNERS OF THE 2020 CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS ANNOUNCED

Carnegie Greenaway logo

read more...
CHILDREN READING MORE IN LOCKDOWN

Silly Squad Laura Ellen Anderson

read more...
SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2020 KLAUS FLUGGE PRIZE

The shortlist for the Klaus Flugge Prize has been announced. 2020 is the fifth year of the prize, which was set up to honour Klaus Flugge, founder of Andersen Press and an extremely influential figure in children’s picture books. It is awarded to the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s picture book illustration.

read more...
SHORTLIST FOR THE 2020 BRANFORD BOASE AWARD ANNOUNCED

BBA logo

read more...
UKLA BOOK AWARDS THE SHORTLISTS 2020

UKLA BOOK AWARDS THE SHORTLISTS 2020

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

CILIP CKG logo

The shortlists for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals, the UK’s oldest book awards for children and young people, have been announced. Selected by Youth Librarians from the 20 strong longlists there are eight books on each of the two lists.

read more...
more
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Help/FAQ
  • My Account