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Books for Keeps 158 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 158 - May 2006

Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration is from Simon Bartram’s Up for the Cup! due to be published in September. Simon Bartram is interviewed by Martin Salisbury. Thanks to Templar Publishing for their help with this May cover.

BfK No. 158 Articles

Editorial - May 2006

News and comment from the Editor.
Marginalising Essentials

Robert Hull on interventionism in the teaching of English.
Fiction Publishing in the 21st Century

Cally Poplak assesses the potential of iCUE.

A Sailor’s Life for Me

Janet Fisher discusses historical novels about Trafalgar.
Authorgraph No.158: Simon Bartram

Simon Bartram interviewed by Martin Salisbury.
What Happens During Shared Reading?

Vincent Reid explores new research findings.
Hal's Reading Diary - May 2006

Roger Mills on competitive parents.
Good Reads: Stanchester Community School, Stoke Sub Hamdon, Somerset

Reviews from Stanchester Community School, Somerset.
BfK Briefing - May 2006

Awards * Events * Obituary * Letters to the Editor * Competition
Useful Organisations No.44: BRAW

BRAW (Books, Reading and Writing) is the network for the Scottish children’s book.
I Wish I’d Written…The Eclipse of the Century

Kate Thompson chooses Jan Mark's The Eclipse of the Century.
Classics in Short No.57: Nurse Matilda

Brian Alderson on Christianna Brand's Nurse Matilda.

Editor's Choice

The Book of Everything
Guus Kuijer
(Young Picador)
5

Have Kuijer’s books been translated before? On the basis of this pithy, short, intensely poetic novel set in the Amsterdam of the 1950s, it would be good to have more of his work in translation.

The bares bones of the story are that 9-year...

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New Talent

The Wind Tamer
P R Morrison
(Bloomsbury Publishing PLC)
4

Archie Stringweed is just ten and a mollycoddled boy whose father, Jeffrey, is very nice but a man who is so anxious that despite collecting travel brochures, he has never dared to venture abroad. The Springweed family motto is ‘Semper fortitudo...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 158

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

Under 5s

  • Ten Steps to Bedtime
    Britta Teckentrup
    5

  • Ouch! I Need a Plaster!
    Nick Sharratt
    5

  • Counting Cockatoos
    Stella Blackstone
    5

  • This Little Chick
    John Lawrence
    4

  • Spookyrumpus
    Tony Mitton
    4

  • Shark in the Park!
    Nick Sharratt
    4

  • Ketchup On Your Cornflakes?
    Nick Sharratt
    4

  • Eric the Red
    Caroline Glicksman
    4

  • This is the Bear
    Sarah Hayes
    Helen Craig
    3

  • Simeon's Gift
    Julie Andrews Edwards
    Emma Walton Hamilton
    3

  • My Mum Goes to Work
    Kes Gray
    3

  • I Love Shapes
    Dr Miriam Stoppard
    3

  • More and More Rabbits
    Nicholas Allan
    2

  • Cleo's Colour Book
    Caroline Mockford
    2

Ages 5-8

  • When a Zeeder Met a Xyder
    Malachy Doyle
    4

  • Oscar and the Frog: A Book about Growing; Oscar and the Moth: A Book about Light and Dark
    Geoff Waring
    4

  • My Map Book
    Sara Fanelli
    4

  • The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon
    Mini Grey
    4

  • My Hat and All That
    Tony Mitton
    3

  • Dinosaur Chase!
    Benedict Blathwayt
    3

Ages 8-10

  • Think of a Number
    Johnny Ball
    5

  • Katie Milk Solves Crimes and so on…
    Annie Caulfield
    5

  • The Penderwicks
    Jeanne Birdsall
    4

  • Clair de Lune
    Cassandra Golds
    4

  • A Bit of Nonsense
    Edward Lear
    4

  • The Wind Tamer
    P R Morrison
    4

  • Transform! How everyday things are made
    Jim Slavin
    3

  • The Story Shop: Stories for Literacy
    3

  • The Midwinters
    Julie Rainsbury
    3

  • A Dog For Life
    L S Matthews
    3

  • Ramose and the Tomb Robbers; Ramose: Prince in Exile
    Carole Wilkinson
    2

  • I Believe in Unicorns
    Michael Morpurgo
    2

  • Flyte (Septimus Heap, Book Two)
    Angie Sage
    2

Ages 10-14

  • Waiting for the Future: Poems by children on poverty and bad housing
    5

  • The Ultimate Teen Book Guide
    5

  • Peace Weavers
    Julia Jarman
    5

  • Once
    Morris Gleitzman
    5

  • The Lottery
    Beth Goobie
    5

  • A Darkling Plain
    Philip Reeve
    5

  • The Book of Everything
    Guus Kuijer
    5

  • Wolf Girl
    Theresa Tomlinson
    4

  • Watching
    Judy Allen
    4

  • Midnighters: The Secret Hour
    Scott Westerfeld
    4

  • Ingo
    Helen Dunmore
    4

  • Flying a Flag for Hitler
    Elsbeth Emmerich
    4

  • The Death Collector
    Justin Richards
    4

  • Charley Feather
    Kate Pennington
    4

  • Venus Spring: Stunt Girl
    Jonny Zucker
    3

  • Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief
    Rick Riordan
    3

  • Payback
    Andy McNab
    Robert Rigby
    3

  • It Didn't Happen
    Sandra Glover
    3

  • Heretic
    Sarah Singleton
    3

  • Boy Band Blues
    Kelly McKain
    3

  • Death of A Princess
    Susan Geason
    2

Ages 14+

  • Tersias
    G P Taylor
    5

  • Silent to the Bone
    E L Konigsburg
    5

  • Let's Get Lost
    Sarra Manning
    5

  • Forged in the Fire
    Ann Turnbull
    5

  • Uglies
    Scott Westerfeld
    4

  • Skin
    A M Vrettos
    4

  • Herman
    Lars Saabye Christensen
    4

  • Thieves Like Us
    Steve Cole
    3

  • Love in Luxor
    Gill Harvey
    3

  • Firestarter
    Catherine Forde
    3

  • The Book of Whispers
    Julie O'Callaghan
    2

Books About Children's Books

  • Treasure Islands: Studies in Children's Literature
    4

BfK News

ALASTAIR HUMPHREYS’ GREAT ADVENTURERS WINS THE 2019 EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD

The winner of the 2019 Educational Writers’ Award is Alastair Humphreys’ Great Adventurers: The Incredible Expeditions of 20 Explorers (Big Picture Press).

Alastair Humphreys Great Adventures

read more...
BLACKMAN AND DOWNHAM ON SHORTLIST FOR 2019 COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD

Former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman and acclaimed author Jenny Downham are on the shortlist for the 2019 Costa Children’s Book Award, which was announced today, 26th November 2020. Alongside them on the list are newcomers Jasbinder Bilan and Nicholas Downing, both of whom are published by Chicken House.

The 2019 Costa Children’s Award shortlist

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2019 ALCS EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD SHORTLIST

Shortlist announced for the UK’s only award for creative educational writing

The Society of Authors and the Authors’ Licensing& Collecting Society have announced the shortlist for the 2019 ALCS Educational Writers’ Award, the UK’s only award for educational writing which stimulates and enhances the learning experience.

read more...
‘INSPIRING’: CONTENDERS FOR THE 2020 BLUE PETER BOOK AWARDS REVEALED

Blue Peter Book Award logo

Six books have made it onto the shortlists for the 2020 Blue Peter Book Awards. There are two categories: Best Story, and – in non-fiction November – Best Book with Facts.

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

And we’re off… the nominations for the 2020 Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals are announced today, Monday 4th November.

read more...
2020 UKLA BOOK AWARDS THE LONGLISTS

UKLA Awards

A record number of submissions and a new category to highlight information books marks the 12th longlists for the UKLA Awards, the only national awards judged by active classroom teachers.

read more...
JESSICA LOVE NAMED WINNER OF THE KLAUS FLUGGE PRIZE 2019 FOR JULIAN IS A MERMAID

Jessica Love

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LOLLIES 2020 SHORTLIST THE YEAR’S FUNNIEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS

Michael Rosen, children’s novelist, poet and former Children’s Laureate, has announced the shortlist for the 2020 Laugh Out Loud Awards (The Lollies), the awards that celebrate the funniest children’s books.

Lollies logo

read more...
HOOD, RUNDELL AND REYNOLDS UKLA BOOK AWARD WINNERS 2019

Morag Hood, Katherine Rundell and Jason Reynolds have been announced as the winners of the UKLA Book Awards 2019 for I Am Bat, The Explorer and Long Way Down respectively.

read more...
CATHERINE JOHNSON WINS LITTLE REBELS CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD

The Alliance of Radical Booksellers (ARB) is delighted to announce that the winner of this year’s Little Rebels Children’s Book Award for Radical Fiction is Catherine Johnson for her book, Freedom (Scholastic 2018).

Catherine Johnsonn photo Andy Donohoe

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