Editorial 200: May 2013

‘We want Books for Keeps to grow from this first edition into a book magazine that truly informs and excites all of you who in turn want children to know and experience the pleasures of reading books.’ So said Books for Keeps founder, the redoubtable Richard Hill and then editor Pat Triggs in the very first issue of the magazine, published in March 1980 (and still available to read in its entirety in our archive).

Over the following thirty-three years, Books for Keeps grew and developed, guided by Richard and two further exceptional editors, Chris Powling and Rosemary Stones. Lots has changed since issue one: then the news was the launch of Scholastic’s Hippos, Magnet’s first birthday, and Beaver’s 200th book; Kaye Webb had just retired. But some things, fortunately, have endured: Quentin Blake was the subject of our first Authorgraph, a wonderful illustration from his new book The Fabulous Foskett Family Circus adorns this cover too. John Burningham, interviewed here by Clive Barnes on the 50th anniversary of Borka, the goose with no feathers, had just been nominated for the Hans Andersen Awards.

Now as we publish issue number 200 those original aims remain the same: to examine the children’s book world, its output, issues and pre-occupations with the rigour, intelligence and scholarship that has always been the BfK hallmark.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the editors, contributors and reviewers whose expertise today and over the years has made BfK such an invaluable resource for those interested in children’s books and children’s reading.

The Books for Keeps editorial team.

Enter this special Books for Keeps number 200 Competition!

To mark our 200th issue, we are offering Books for Keeps readers a chance to win 200 of the best new books of the last twelve months, a selection of picture books, young readers, teen titles, non-fiction and poetry.

You’ll find the details on page one of our digital edition.