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Books for Keeps 188 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 188 - May 2011
BfK 188 May 2011

Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration is from Emily Gravett’s Wolf Won’t Bite! Emily Gravett is interviewed in this issue. Thanks to Macmillan Children’s Books for their support for this May cover.

Digital Edition
By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of BfK 188 May 2011.

BfK No. 188 Articles

Editorial – May 2011

News and comment from the Editor.
The marketing and reviewing of multicultural children’s books

Rosemary Stones discusses the issues.
Young Adult fiction comes of age?

Caroline Sanderson investigates the trends.
Flat Stanley: a Comic Hero

Elizabeth Hammill celebrates his appeal.
BfK Basics: Helping your child enjoy books and reading

Alison Kelly explains how to support early readers.
Ten of the Best Dystopian Novels

Geraldine Brennan chooses her top ten titles.
Windows into Illustration: Shaun Tan

Shaun Tan on illustrating The Red Tree.
Authorgraph No.188: Emily Gravett

Emily Gravett is interviewed by Clive Barnes.
BfK Briefing – May 2011

Awards * Publications * Obituary * News
Hal’s Reading Diary – May 2011

Roger Mills describes Hal’s emerging moral compass.
I Wish I'd Written… The Hunger Games

Lucy Christopher chooses The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.
Good Reads: Trafalgar Junior School Readers and Writers Club

Reviews from Trafalgar Junior School Readers and Writers Club.
Classics in Short No.87: James and the Giant Peach

Brian Alderson on Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach.
Roald Dahl and his illustrator Quentin Blake

Brian Alderson discusses the partnership of Roald Dahl and Quentin Blake.
Frances Lincoln’s new poetry list

Morag Styles talks to Janetta Otter-Barry of Frances Lincoln about her new poetry list.
John Connolly turns to children’s fiction

 John Connolly interviewed for Graham Marks.
An interview with Mal Peet

Mal Peet talks about his book Life: An Exploded Diagram
Don Calame interviewed by Graham Marks

Why did a Hollywood screenwriter decide to write a novel for teenagers? Or, more specifically, a novel for teenage boys about teenage boys? The three main protagonists in Don Calame’s debut novel Swim the Fly - Matt, Coop and Sean - are artfully drawn, living, breathing boys, both funny and charming, even when they’re being gross. Graham Marks interviewed Don Calame for Books for Keeps and learnt how the novel came about.
Garth Nix and Sean Williams in a Collaborative Venture

Graham Marks interviews Garth Nix and Sean Williams for Books for Keeps about their new collaboration, Troubletwisters
Josh Lacey on The Island of Thieves

Read our interview with Josh Lacey

Editor's Choice

The Tiger-Skin Rug
Gerald Rose
(Bloomsbury Children's Books)
5

A ‘sad and thin’ old tiger lives on the edge of the jungle. He finds food difficult to catch but comes up with an ingenious solution to his problems. He takes the place of the tiger-skin rug in the Rajah’s palace and when the family retires to...

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New Talent

Entangled
Cat Clarke
(Quercus Children's Books)
4

Grace meets Ethan the night she is planning to kill herself. After drinking most of a bottle of vodka she finds herself imprisoned in a mysterious white room with Ethan as her warder. He leaves pens and paper for her and eventually she begins to...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 188

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

Under 5s

  • The Tiger-Skin Rug
    Gerald Rose
    5

  • I Like Toys ¦ I Like Peas
    Lorena Siminovich
    4

  • Go Wild with... Colours
    Neal Layton
    4

  • Sometimes
    Rebecca Elliott
    4

  • Funny Face
    Nicola Smee
    3

  • When Baby Lost Bunny
    Julia Jarman
    3

  • Katie's Zoo: A Day Oot for Wee Folk
    James Robertson
    3

  • Kipper
    Mick Inkpen
    3

  • Peely Wally
    Kali Stileman
    3

  • The Tickle Ghost
    Brett McKee
    3

  • Oliver and the Noisy Baby
    Mara Bergman
    3

  • Norman: The Slug with the Silly Shell
    Sue Hendra
    3

  • The Town Mouse & the Country Mouse
    Mimi Hachikai
    3

  • I Love my Daddy
    Giles Andreae
    3

Ages 5-8

  • Number Circus: 1-10 and back again!
    Kveta Pacovska
    5

  • A Walk in London
    Salvatore Rubbino
    5

  • Little Red Hood
    Marjolaine Leray
    4

  • Batty
    Sarah Dyer
    3

  • Runaway Duckling ¦ Where Are My Lambs?
    Francesca Simon
    3

  • Space School: Blast Off! ¦ Space School: Crash Course
    Tom Bradman
    Tony Bradman
    3

  • Claude in the City
    Alex T Smith
    3

  • The Kitten with no Name
    Vivian French
    3

  • RHS How Does My Garden Grow?
    3

Ages 8-10

  • On the Blue Comet
    Rosemary Wells
    5

  • Tree Soup
    Joel Stewart
    5

  • Billionaire Boy
    David Walliams
    5

  • The Island of Thieves
    Josh Lacey
    5

  • The Secret Kingdom
    Jenny Nimmo
    4

  • Animal Tales
    Terry Jones
    4

  • Earthquakes!
    Helen Dwyer
    4

  • The Great Rabbit Rescue
    Katie Davies
    4

  • The Case of the Glasgow Ghoul
    Joan Lennon
    3

  • A Million Brilliant Poems (part one) ¦ How to Turn Your Teacher Purple!
    Roger Stevens
    3

  • The Double Life of Cora Parry
    Angela McAllister
    3

  • Blackout
    Robert Swindells
    3

  • The Dream Dealer
    Marita Phillips
    3

  • The Travelling Restaurant
    Barbara Else
    3

Ages 10-14

  • Ice Maiden
    Sally Prue
    5

  • Bracelet of Bones
    Kevin Crossley-Holland
    5

  • The Story of Britain
    Patrick Dillon
    5

  • Scorpia Rising
    Anthony Horowitz
    4

  • Twilight Robbery
    Frances Hardinge
    4

  • Lily Alone
    Jacqueline Wilson
    4

  • Moon Pie
    Simon Mason
    4

  • The Gun
    Bali Rai
    4

  • Forge
    Laurie Halse Anderson
    4

  • The Abused Werewolf Rescue Group
    Catherine Jinks
    4

  • Camden Town Tales: The Celeb Next Door
    Hilary Freeman
    4

  • The Bad Karma Diaries
    Bridget Hourican
    4

  • Buried Thunder
    Tim Bowler
    4

  • Castle of Shadows ¦ City of Thieves
    Ellen Renner
    4

  • Wreckers
    Julie Hearn
    4

  • Ministry of Pandemonium
    Chris Westwood
    4

  • Stories About Surviving Cancer
    Jane Bingham
    4

  • Blood Red Road
    Moira Young
    4

  • Milo and the Restart Button
    Alan Silberberg
    3

  • Running in Heels
    3

  • Badlands: Gold Rush
    Eldridge James
    3

  • Spirit of the Titanic
    Nicola Pierce
    3

  • Run Rabbit Run
    Barbara Mitchelhill
    3

  • Hidden
    Miriam Halahmy
    3

  • Bloodline
    Kate Cary
    3

  • Agent 21
    Chris Ryan
    3

  • The Replacement
    Brenna Yovanoff
    3

  • The Emerald Atlas
    John Stephens
    3

Ages 14+

  • Between Shades of Gray
    Ruta Sepetys
    5

  • Life: An Exploded Diagram
    Mal Peet
    5

  • SHADOWS ON THE MOON
    Zoe Marriott
    5

  • The Opposite of Amber
    Gillian Philip
    4

  • Heart Burn
    Anne Cassidy
    4

  • Entangled
    Cat Clarke
    4

  • In the Bag
    Jim Carrington
    4

  • A Beautiful Lie
    Irfan Master
    3

  • Everybody Jam
    Ali Lewis
    3

  • Long Reach
    Peter Cocks
    3

Books About Children's Books

  • Book Power: Literacy through Literature, Year 2
    Jane Bunting
    Sue Ellis
    Jenny Vernon
    5

BfK News

NATASHA FARRANT WINS 2020 COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD

Natasha Farrant

Writer and literary scout Natasha Farrant has won the 2020 Costa Children’s Book Award for Voyage of the Sparrowhawk, a book which the judges described as ‘pure heavenly escapism and a purely joyful read.’

read more...
ROBIN WALKER WINS THE 2020 ALCS EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD FOR BLACK HISTORY MATTERS

The winner of the 2020 ALCS Educational Writers’ Award is Black History Matters: The Story of Black History, From African Kingdoms to Black Lives Matter. Written by acclaimed Black historian, Robin Walker, the 2020 judges praised this accessible, comprehensive and inspiring book which provides a timely introduction both to Black history and the Black Lives Matter movement.

read more...
IBBY UK nominate Marcus Sedgwick and David McKee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award 2022

IBBY UK has announced that Marcus Sedgwick and David McKee will be the UK nominations for the 2022 Hans Christian Andersen Award.

read more...
SHORTLIST FOR THE COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD 2020

Debut authors Darren Charlton and Jenny Pearson join Natasha Farrant and Meg Rosoff on the shortlist for the 2020 Costa Children’s Book Award.

The shortlist for the 2020 Costa Children’s Book Award has been announced. No less than 146 books were submitted and from those the judges have chosen a shortlist of four. They are:

Wranglestone by Darren Charlton (Little Tiger)

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BOOKTRUST’S REPRESENTS INTERIM RESEARCH & CLPE REFLECTING REALITIES SURVEY 2020

CLPE Reflecting Realities Report 2020

read more...
SHORTLIST FOR THE 2021 BLUE PETER BOOK AWARDS REVEALED

The six books shortlisted for the 2021 Blue Peter Book Awards have been announced.

Blue Peter Book Award logo

read more...
Happy National Non-Fiction November 2020

It’s National Non-Fiction November! Organised by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, National Non-Fiction November is an annual celebration of the power of non-fiction to inspire children and celebrate readers who have a passion for information and facts. 2020 is the 10th anniversary of National Non-Fiction November.

read more...
JANE PORTER AND MAISIE PARADISE SHEARRING 2020 LITTLE REBELS AWARD WINNERS

Jane Porter and Maisie Paradise Shearring have won the 2020 Little Rebels Award for their picture book The Boy who Loved Everyone. They will share the £2000 prize.

Little Rebels logo 2020

read more...
OU AND MACMILLAN CHILDREN’S BOOKS LAUNCH BOOK CHAT SCHEME

The Open University (OU) is launching Book Chat: Reading with your Child, a resource which comprises three short films and support materials to help parents, families and carers read books conversationally and creatively to children. Working with Macmillan Children’s Books, the films use a selection of their picture books and a poetry collection to support families with reading to different ages of children.

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TOM PALMER WINS THE CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD 2020

Tom Palmer

read more...
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