Home
  • Home
  • Latest Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Authors & Artists
  • Articles
  • Reviews
  • News
  • Forums
  • Search

Books for Keeps 224 - the children's book magazine online

  • View
  • Rearrange

Digital version – browse, print or download

Can't see the preview?
Click here!

How to print the digital edition of Books for Keeps: click on this PDF file link - click on the printer icon in the top right of the screen to print.

BfK Newsletter

Receive the latest news & reviews direct to your inbox!

BfK No. 224 - May 2017
BfK 224 May 2017

This issue’s cover illustration features The Pavee and the Buffer Girl by Siobhan Dowd and Emma Shoard. Thanks to Barrington Stoke for their help with this May cover.
Digital Edition
By clicking here you can view, print or download the fully artworked Digital Edition of BfK 224 May 2017.

BfK No. 224 Articles

Editorial 224

Editorial comment
The story of The Pavee and the Buffer Girl

Tony Bradman on the commission that launched the career of Siobhan Dowd.
Celebrating poetry: with the CLiPPA and in the classroom

The CLiPPA 2017
Windows into Illustration: Steve Lenton

Steve Lenton on Let's Find Fred
Authorgraph 224 Elizabeth Wein

Elizabeth Wein interviewed by Anna James
Ten of the Best Books to Introduce Children to Politics

Chosen by author and bookseller Catherine Barter
Rewarding Reads: celebrating the Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals

Jake Hope looks back over the celebrated children's book awards
Magic, mother-daughter bonds, and feeling ‘oustiderish’

Michelle Pauli talks to Irena Brignull about The Hawkweed Prophecy
The Mizielinskis under the microscope

Aleksandra Mizielińska and Daniel Mizieliński in the spotlight
Two children tell: Nicholas and Grendel

Nicholas encounters monsters
I Wish I’d Written: Jason Wallace

Jason Wallace declares Lord of the Flies by far and away the book he wishes he’d written
Good Reads 224

Good Reads chosen by young people at the Hemel Hempstead School, Hemel Hempstead
Classics in Short No. 123: a child’s introduction to The Pilgrim's Progress

Isaac Taylor's Bunyan Explained to a Child
AN INTERVIEW WITH EMMA DONOGHUE

The author of Room interviewed about her debut children's book.
AN INTERVIEW WITH SEBASTIEN DE CASTELL

An interview with the author of Spellslinger
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE 2017 KATE GREENAWAY MEDAL WINNER LANE SMITH

Exclusive Books for Keeps interview
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE 2017 CARNEGIE MEDAL WINNER RUTA SEPETYS

An exclusive Books for Keeps interview
AN INTERVIEW WITH RACHEL HICKMAN

Andrea Reece talks to Rachel Hickman about her book One Silver Summer.

Editor's Choice

Virginia Wolf
Kyo Maclear
(AVA Publishing SA)
5

‘One day my sister Virginia woke up feeling wolfish’. Nothing can change her mood, though sister Vanessa tries and tries. When Virginia finally admits there is something – or rather a somewhere – that will make her feel better, it is up to...

read more

New Talent

Mold and the Poison Plot
Lorraine Gregory
(OUP Oxford)
5

In Mold and the Poison Plot we meet a wonderful new hero with a distinctive voice and an amazing ability to smell out danger. Mold is small and puny, but he has an enormous nose and a big heart.  As a baby, he was found in a...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 224

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

Under 5s

  • Sunk
    Rob Biddulph
    5

  • A Perfect Day
    Lane Smith
    5

  • Quiet!
    Kate Alizadeh
    5

  • Bedtime with Ted
    Sophy Henn
    4

  • Mouse’s Big Day (Twit Twoo School)
    Lydia Monks
    4

  • Tiger Tiger
    Jonny Lambert
    4

Ages 5-8

  • Virginia Wolf
    Kyo Maclear
    5

  • Rabbit & Bear The Pest in the Nest
    5

  • Town is by the Sea
    Joanne Schwartz
    5

  • The Treasure of Pirate Frank
    Mal Peet
    Elspeth Graham
    5

  • Little Lemur Laughing
    Joshua Seigel
    4

  • The Street Beneath My Feet
    Charlotte Guillain
    4

  • All About Ella
    Sally Nicholls
    4

Ages 8-10

  • Mold and the Poison Plot
    Lorraine Gregory
    5

  • A Song for Will - The Lost Gardeners of Heligan
    Hilary Robinson
    5

  • The Little Book of Wetland Bird Sounds
    Andrea Pinnington
    Caz Buckingham
    5

  • Ella Queen of Jazz
    Helen Hancocks
    5

  • The Lotterys Plus One
    Emma Donoghue
    4

  • A Story Like the Wind
    Gill Lewis
    4

  • The Ravenmaster's Boy
    Mary Hoffman
    4

  • Goodly and Grave In a Bad Case of Kidnap
    Justine Windsor
    4

Ages 10-14

  • Small Things
    Mel Tregonning
    5

  • The Pavee and the Buffer Girl
    Siobhan Dowd
    5

  • The Little Book of Wetland Bird Sounds
    Andrea Pinnington
    Caz Buckingham
    5

  • Where the World Ends
    Geraldine McCaughrean
    5

  • See How They Lie
    Sue Wallman
    5

  • Out of Heart
    Irfan Master
    4

  • The Ravenmaster's Boy
    Mary Hoffman
    4

  • Anglo-Saxon Boy
    Tony Bradman
    4

  • Wave me Goodbye
    Jacqueline Wilson
    4

  • See You in the Cosmos, Carl Sagan
    Jack Cheng
    4

  • #Help, my cat’s a vlogging superstar!
    Rae Earl
    4

  • Reaching the Stars
    Jan Dean
    Michaela Morgan
    Liz Brownlee
    3

Ages 14+

  • The Memory Book
    Lara Avery
    5

  • Release
    Patrick Ness
    5

  • The Hate U Give
    Angie Thomas
    5

  • Where the World Ends
    Geraldine McCaughrean
    5

  • Every Hidden Thing
    Kenneth Oppel
    5

  • Out of Heart
    Irfan Master
    4

  • Troublemakers
    Catherine Barter
    4

  • The Girl In Between
    Sarah Carroll
    4

  • I Have No Secrets
    Penny Joelson
    4

  • Beyond the Wall
    Tanya Landman
    4

Books About Children's Books

  • 'Over the Hills and Far Away'; the life of Beatrix Potter
    Matthew Dennison
    3

BfK News

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.

read more...
TOM PALMER WINS THE CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD 2020

Tom Palmer

read more...
Zaro Weil wins 2020 CLiPPA (CLPE Children’s Poetry Award)

Poet Zaro Weil was today announced the winner of the annual poetry award, CLiPPA (Centre for Literacy in Primary Poetry Award) for her collection of nature poems, Cherry Moon, published by ZaZaKids Books/ Troika Books and illustrated by Junli Song.

CLiPPA winner

read more...
CILIP CARNEGIE AND KATE GREENAWAY SHADOWERS’ CHOICE AWARDS TO DEAN ATTA AND KADIR NELSON

The winners of the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Shadowers’ Choice Awards, voted for by children and young people, have been announced.

The Black Flamingo

read more...
LONGLISTS ANNOUNCED FOR 2021 UKLA BOOK AWARDS

UKLA award

read more...
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

read more...
LIZ HYDER AND EDITOR SARAH ODEDINA WIN 2020 BRANFORD BOASE AWARD

Branford Boase Award logo

read more...
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.

read more...
more
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Help/FAQ
  • My Account