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Books for Keeps 236 - the children's book magazine online

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BfK No. 236 - May 2019
BfK 236 May 2019

This issue’s cover illustration features Rumblestar, book one in The Unmapped Chronicles series by Abi Elphinstone illustrated by Carrie May. Thanks to Simon and Schuster for their help with this May cover.

BfK No. 236 Articles

Editorial 236

Guest Editorial by Little Rebels judge Patrice Lawrence
Fine Art and Feminism, Education and Inspiration: The Bigger Picture

Fine Art and Feminism, the bigger picture by Sophia Bennett
30 years of Elmer, the indispensable elephant

Happy 30th Birthday, Elmer. Carey Fluker Hunt celebrates
Ten of the Best: Books about Witches

Imogen Russell Williams decides which witches are best
Authorgraph 236: Abi Elphinstone

Abi Elphinstone interviewed by Joy Court
Windows into Illustration: Victoria Turnbull

Windows into Illustration: Victoria Turnbull

Picturebook talent: the 2019 Klaus Flugge Prize shortlist

Martin Salisbury appraises the Klaus Flugge Prize shortlist
Flights of Imagination: the Migrations exhibition

A guide to the Migrations exhibition by Pam Dix
Beyond the Secret Garden: Taking Series Seriously

Beyond the Secret Garden: Darren Chetty and Karen Sands-O’Connor take series seriously
Bringing Beowulf to Britain

Tony Bradman on a story that’s enthralled him all his life
I Wish I’d Written: Susan Martineau

Susan Martineau on the magic of The Eagle of the Ninth
Good Reads 236

Good Reads chosen by chosen by pupils at Manav Rachna International School, India
Classics in Short No 135: A Wonder-Book for Boys and Girls

Brian Alderson assesses the first classic children's book to come from the United States.

Editor's Choice

Tad
Benji Davies
(HarperCollinsChildren'sBooks)
4

Tad is the smallest tadpole in the pond and struggles to keep up with her many siblings who taunt her with the threat of Big Blub. Then Tad notices her brothers and sisters are disappearing – where have they gone? What will happen to her – she...

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New Talent

The Umbrella Mouse
Anna Fargher
(Macmillan Children's Books)
3

It’s 1944, the D-Day landings have just taken place and Pip the mouse is living with her parents inside an antique umbrella in a shop window in New Oxford Street, where Pip listens to stories about her Italian relatives at the umbrella museum in...

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All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 236

  • Under 5s
  • Ages 5-8
  • Ages 8-10
  • Ages 10-14
  • Ages 14+

Under 5s

  • Circle
    Mac Barnett
    5

  • Lubna and Pebble
    Wendy Meddour
    5

  • This Love: A Celebration of Harmony Around the World
    Isabel Otter
    5

  • The Go-Away Bird
    Julia Donaldson
    5

  • Tad
    Benji Davies
    4

  • The Flute
    Ken Wilson-Max
    4

  • Cloud Forest
    Victoria Turnbull
    4

  • Tiny T. Rex and The Impossible Hug
    Jonathan Stutzman
    4

Ages 5-8

  • Five More Minutes
    Marta Altés
    5

  • Paper Planes
    Jim Helmore
    4

  • Hotel Flamingo
    Alex Milway
    4

  • The Great Big Book of Life
    Mary Hoffman
    Ros Asquith
    4

  • I Saw a Bee
    Rob Ramsden
    4

Ages 8-10

  • The Star-spun Web
    Sinéad O’Hart
    5

  • Cloud Boy
    Marcia Williams
    5

  • Swimming Against the Storm
    Jess Butterworth
    5

  • The Tunnels Below
    Nadine Wild-Palmer
    4

  • The Longest Night of Charlie Moon
    Christopher Edge
    4

  • The Cosmic Atlas of Alfie Fleet
    Martin Howard
    4

  • We Won An Island
    Charlotte Lo
    4

  • The Winged Horse Race
    Kallie George
    4

  • The Last Zoo
    Sam Gayton
    4

  • Winter of the Wolves
    Tony Bradman
    4

  • The Umbrella Mouse
    Anna Fargher
    3

Ages 10-14

  • The Time Travel Diaries
    Caroline Lawrence
    5

  • Dancing the Charleston
    Jacqueline Wilson
    5

  • Pay Attention, Carter Jones
    Gary D. Schmidt
    5

  • Winter of the Wolves
    Tony Bradman
    4

  • A Wolf Called Wander
    Rosanne Parry
    4

  • The Middler
    Kirsty Appelbaum
    3

Ages 14+

  • Voyages in the Underworld of Orpheus Black
    Marcus Sedgwick
    Julian Sedgwick
    5

  • Toffee
    Sarah Crossan
    5

  • The Stolen Ones
    Vanessa Curtis
    5

  • The Colour of Shadows
    Phyllida Shrimpton
    3

BfK News

BRANFORD BOASE AWARD SHORTLIST 2019

The children’s authors to watch: shortlist for the 2019 Branford Boase Award announced

Branford Boase Award shortlist 2019

read more...
THE YEAR'S BEST POETRY FOR CHILDREN: CLiPPA 2019 SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED

The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) has announced the 2019 shortlist for their poetry award, CLiPPA (The Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award). Children’s poetry is booming and there were a record number of entries for the CLiPPA, the only award for children’s poetry.

read more...
THE LITTLE REBELS AWARD SHORTLIST 2019

Little Rebels prize logoThe shortlist for the 2019 Little Rebels Award has been announced. Seven books have made the list with war and conflict recurring themes.

read more...
SHORTLISTS FOR 2019 CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS

The shortlists for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced. Selected by volunteer Youth Librarians from longlists of 20 books per medal, there are eight on each shortlist.

Alongside previously shortlisted authors and illustrators, there are newcomers on each shortlist, and as the poetry boom for young readers continues, three verse novels make the Carnegie shortlist by US authors Elizabeth Acevedo, Kwame Alexander and Jason Reynolds.

The 2019 shortlists are as follows:

read more...
BLUE PETER BOOK AWARD WINNERS 2019

The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q Raúf and The Colours of History by Clive Gifford, illustrated by Marc-Etienne Peintre, have been revealed as the 2019 Blue Peter Book Award winners.

read more...
LONGLISTS FOR 2019 CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY MEDALS ANNOUNCED

The longlists for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals have been announced. Members of YLG have selected 20 books for each list from no less than 254 nominations.

read more...
WINNERS OF THE LAUGH OUT LOUD BOOK AWARDS 2019

Funny Women win the Lollies!

Lollies winners 2019

Elys Dolan, Emer Stamp and Tom Gates creator Liz Pichon have been named the winners of the 2019 Laugh Out Loud Awards, or Lollies.

read more...
HILARY MCKAY WINS COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD WITH ‘PERFECT’ NOVEL

Hilary McKay has won the Costa Children’s Book Award for the second time for The Skylarks’ War, a story following the loves and losses of a family growing up against the backdrop of World War One. The judges described The Skylarks’ War as ‘as perfect a novel as you could ever want to read’. She receives £5,000 and her book is now eligible for the ultimate prize - the 2018 Costa Book of the Year.

read more...
FAR FROM HOME WINS THE 2018 EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD

The winner of the 2018 Educational Writers’ Award, the UK’s sole award for creative educational writing, is Far From Home: Refugees and Migrants Fleeing War, Persecution and Poverty by Cath Senker, a topical and richly illustrated book which sensitively examines the root causes of mass migrations of people in the 21st century.

Cath Senker wins EWA 2018

read more...
SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2018 EDUCATIONAL WRITERS’ AWARD

Canvases, Codes, Clean Water & Empathy

read more...
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