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Books for Keeps 181 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 181 - March 2010
BfK 181 March 2010

Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration is from Brian Wildsmith’s The Hare and the Tortoise (© Brian Wildsmith 1966) published by Oxford University Press and re-issued in 2007 (978 0 19 272708 4, £5.99 pbk). Brian Wildsmith’s work is discussed by Joanna Carey in this issue. Thanks to Oxford University Press for their help with this March cover.

BfK No. 181 Articles

Editorial – March 2010

News and comment from the Editor.
The Children’s Books of the Decade

Rosemary Stones reflects on the first ten years of the new millennium.
Brian Wildsmith: A retrospective

Joanna Carey assesses his unique contribution.
Ten of the Best: Books that Introduce Children to Art

Martin Salisbury chooses his top ten.
Authorgraph No.181: Elizabeth Laird

Elizabeth Laird interviewed by Nicholas Tucker
A Time Like No Other

Peter Hollindale discusses A S Byatt's The Children's Book
BfK Briefing – March 2010

Event * Award
Useful Organisations No.52: Perform-a-Poem

A unique poetry performance website for primary school children.
Hal’s Reading Diary – March 2010

Roger Mills on the appeal of violence to children in their books.
I Wish I’d Written… Red Shift

Anthony McGowan chooses Alan Garner's Red Shift
Good Reads: Bishop Rawstorne C of E Language College, Lancashire

Reviews from pupils of Bishop Rawstorne C of E Language College.
Classics in Short No.80: The Eagle of the Ninth

Brian Alderson on Rosemary Sutcliff’s The Eagle of the Ninth.

Editor's Choice

The General
Janet Charters
(Templar Books)
5

Not many generals can be seen wearing a CND badge but General Jodhpur, illustrated by Michael Foreman in 1961 when he was still an art student, is a general who disbands his army so that the soldiers can return home and make their country ‘the...

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New Talent

Quicksilver
Sam Osman
(Marion Lloyd Books)
3

Ever since Alfred Watkins coined the term ‘ley lines’ in the 1920s and proposed that the lines connecting ancient sites are in fact old routes followed in prehistoric times for religious or trade reasons, there have been those who have attributed...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 181

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

Under 5s

  • This is my Book
    Mick Inkpen
    5

  • Yummy
    Lucy Cousins
    5

  • One Smart Fish
    Chris Wormell
    4

  • Little Miss Muffet and other rhymes
    PatrickGeorge
    4

  • The Wide-Mouthed Frog
    Iain Smyth
    3

  • The Terrible Plop
    Ursula Dubosarsky
    3

  • Dennis Duckling ¦ Where is Poppy’s Panda?
    Paul Sambrooks
    3

  • Grandma Comes to Stay ¦ Deron Goes to Nursery School
    Ifeoma Onyefulu
    3

  • What’s the Time, Mr Wolf? ¦ Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star
    Mandy Ross
    2

Ages 5-8

  • Yucky Worms
    Vivian French
    5

  • The General
    Janet Charters
    5

  • Miko’s Magic Number
    Ruth Brown
    4

  • The King and the Seed
    Kes Gray
    4

  • Pea Boy and other stories from Iran
    4

  • Insect Detective
    Steve Voake
    4

  • Mum and Dad Glue
    Kes Gray
    3

  • Azad's Camel
    Erika Pál
    3

  • My First Book of Garden Bugs
    Mike Unwin
    3

  • Return to the Hundred Acre Wood
    David Benedictus
    2

Ages 8-10

  • The Man Who Lost His Head
    Claire Huchet Bishop
    5

  • The Wainscott Weasel
    Tor Seidler
    5

  • Umpteen Pockets: New and Collected Poems for Children
    Adrian Mitchell
    5

  • Cars: A pop-up book of automobiles
    Robert Crowther
    5

  • Bram Stoker’s Dracula
    4

  • Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ¦ Alice in Wonderland
    4

  • The Kites Are Flying!
    Michael Morpurgo
    4

  • Day by Day by Me
    Various Illustrators
    4

  • Remembering Green
    Lesley Beake
    3

  • The Great Hamster Massacre
    Katie Davies
    3

  • The Wickedest Witch
    Martin Howard
    3

  • Don Quixote
    Miguel De Cervantes
    3

  • Out of the Woods
    Lyn Gardner
    3

  • The Lightning Key
    Jon Berkeley
    3

  • Hamzat’s Journey: A Refugee Diary
    Anthony Robinson
    3

  • The Raven Mysteries, Book 2: Ghosts and Gadgets
    Marcus Sedgwick
    2

  • I Spy: The Constantinople Caper
    Graham Marks
    2

  • Lydia’s Tin Lid Drum
    Neale Osborne
    2

  • The Wild Things
    Dave Eggers
    1

Ages 10-14

  • The Battle of the Sun
    Jeanette Winterson
    5

  • Fortune Cookie
    Jean Ure
    4

  • Thief!
    John Pilkington
    4

  • Halo
    Zizou Corder
    4

  • Time Quake
    Linda Buckley-Archer
    4

  • The Lark and the Laurel
    Barbara Willard
    3

  • Salem Brownstone – All Along the Watchtowers
    John Harris Dunning
    3

  • Witch & Wizard
    James Patterson
    3

  • Hell’s Heroes
    Darren Shan
    3

  • Crocodile Tears
    Anthony Horowitz
    3

  • Quicksilver
    Sam Osman
    3

  • Leviathan
    Scott Westerfeld
    3

  • Energy Revolution: Climate change and our post-carbon future
    Joseph Lacey
    3

  • Esty’s Gold
    Mary Arrigan
    2

Ages 14+

  • Rich and Mad
    William Nicholson
    4

  • Sacred Scars
    Kathleen Duey
    4

  • Hunger
    Michael Grant
    4

  • Inside
    Julia Jarman
    3

  • Paradise Red
    K M Grant
    3

  • Daughter of Fire and Ice
    Marie-Louise Jensen
    3

  • We Were Young and at War
    Sarah Wallis
    Svetlana Palmer
    3

  • Evermore
    Alyson Noël
    1

Books About Children's Books

  • The Private Diaries of Alison Uttley
    1

  • Illustrated Children’s Books
    0

BfK News

EVA ELAND NAMED WINNER OF THE FIFTH KLAUS FLUGGE PRIZE

Eva Eland has won the 2020 Klaus Flugge Prize for the most exciting and promising newcomer to children’s picture book illustration. She won for her book When Sadness Comes to Call (Andersen Press), in which a young child opens the door to an unexpected visitor, Sadness, personified as a semi-transparent amorphous shape.

read more...
THE JHALAK PRIZE: A NEW PRIZE FOR BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS WRITTEN BY WRITERS OF COLOUR

Jhalak Prize logo

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LIZ HYDER AND EDITOR SARAH ODEDINA WIN 2020 BRANFORD BOASE AWARD

Branford Boase Award logo

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UK NOMINATIONS IBBY’S OUTSTANDING BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES 2021

Every two years, IBBY invites nominations from national sections for its international list of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities. The final list is selected from these by the IBBY Documentation Centre of Books for Young People with Disabilities, based in Toronto. Because of its international content, the list is unique in the children’s book world. It is a huge voluntary undertaking as every country is encouraged to submit up to twelve titles across the three categories.

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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

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

WCBP logo 2020

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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

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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’.

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WINNERS OF THE 2020 CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS ANNOUNCED

Carnegie Greenaway logo

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CHILDREN READING MORE IN LOCKDOWN

Silly Squad Laura Ellen Anderson

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