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

Books for Keeps 128 - 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. 128 - May 2001

Cover Story
This issue’s cover is from Lauren Child’s I Am NOT Sleepy and I WILL NOT Go to Bed. Lauren Child is interviewed by Joanna Carey. Thanks to Orchard Books for their help with this May cover.

BfK No. 128 Articles

Editorial - May 2001

News and comment from the Editor.
2001 Picture Books for the Not So Very Young

Elaine Moss on the latest picture books.
Authorgraph No.128: Lauren Child

Lauren Child interviewed by Joanna Carey.
Windows into Illustration: Bob Graham

Bob Graham on his recent picture book, Max.
Inspiring ‘Reluctant’ Readers

Cynthia Dummett and Anne Marley on books that worked.
Short Stories for Young Readers: the Neglected Genre?

Peter Hollindale on the unique qualities of the short story.
BfK Briefing - May 2001

News * Events * Obituary * Awards * Publications * Letters to the Editor
Useful Organisations No.15: Action for Children’s Arts

Promotes and develops all the creative and performing arts for and with children.
I Wish I’d Written… Junk

Lesley Howarth chooses Melvin Burgess's Junk.
Good Reads: King Arthur’s Community School

Reviews from pupils of King Arthur's Community School, Wincanton, Somerset.
Classics in Short No.27: Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse

Brian Alderson on Ursula Moray Williams' Adventures of the Little Wooden Horse.

Editor's Choice

Witch Child
Celia Rees
(Bloomsbury Publishing PLC)
5

Mary is a witch - or, as she says, 'so some would call me'. Her narrative, told in the form of a diary, begins in 1659 with the torture and hanging for witchcraft of the woman she has always thought of as her grandmother. How, then, is Mary to be...

read more

New Talent

(Un) arranged Marriage
Bali Rai
(Corgi Childrens)
3

This lively first novel spans five years in Manjit's life, from the ages of 13 to 17. His path, predetermined by his traditional Leicester Punjabi family, is that he will be married at 17 to a girl he has never met before, just as his older...

read more

All Children's Book Reviews in BfK No. 128

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

Under 5s

  • The Puffin Book of Amazing Animal Poems
    4

  • The Joking Wolf
    Val Biro
    4

  • Don't Step on the Crack!
    Colin McNaughton
    4

  • Sam's First Day
    David Mills
    Sujata Banerjee
    3

  • Tiny Rabbit Goes to the Park
    John Wallace
    3

Ages 5-8

  • My Surprise Book of Seasons; My Surprise Book of Senses; My Surprise Book of Pirates; My Surprise Book of Night and Day
    Valerie Guidoux
    5

  • Rocking Horse Land and Other Classic Tales of Dolls and Toys
    Naomi Lewis
    5

  • Lady Lollipop
    Dick King-Smith
    5

  • Bob and the House Elves
    Emily Rodda
    4

  • Sausage and the Little Visitor; Sausage in Trouble; School for Sausage; Sausage and the Spooks
    Michaela Morgan
    4

  • Tiger and Me
    Kaye Umansky
    4

  • Kiss the Cow!
    Phyllis Root
    4

  • Singing to the Sun
    Vivian French
    3

  • More Jessame Stories
    Julia Jarman
    3

  • Even More Nonsense
    Michael Rosen
    3

Ages 8-10

  • The Story of Ireland
    Richard Brassey
    5

  • Grow Organic Eat Organic: A practical activity book for beginners
    Lone Morton
    5

  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
    J K Rowling
    5

  • What Do We Think About Bullying?
    Jillian Powell
    4

  • Bad Dreams
    Anne Fine
    4

  • Never Play Snap with a Shark
    John Foster
    3

  • The Four Children of Night
    Weem Whitaker
    3

  • The Penguin in the Fridge and other Cool Poems; Welcome to the Snake Hotel: Slithering poems
    Peter Dixon
    3

  • Sucked In
    Paul Jennings
    3

  • Climb Aboard the Poetry Plane
    John Foster
    3

  • Joker; Sam's Dream; Arf and the Greedy Grabber; Jack's Tree; The Planet Machine; Mr Potts, the Potty Teacher
    Anthony Masters
    3

  • The Phantom's Fang-tastic Show
    Wes Magee
    2

Ages 10-14

  • Shacked Up
    Kate Cann
    5

  • True Believer
    Virginia Euwer Wolff
    5

  • Breaking Up
    Kate Cann
    5

  • Brothers
    Ted Van Lieshout
    Lance Salway
    5

  • Witch Child
    Celia Rees
    5

  • Fuels for the Future; Waste Recycling and Re-use; Keeping Water Clean; Keeping the Air Clean
    Steve Parker
    5

  • Britannia on Stage: 25 Plays from British History
    Geraldine McCaughrean
    5

  • Secret Heart
    David Almond
    5

  • The Flip Side
    Andrew Matthews
    4

  • Eight Days of Luke; Archer's Goon
    Diana Wynne Jones
    4

  • Mine's a Winner; Cast Away; System Shock; Respect
    Michael Hardcastle
    4

  • (Un) arranged Marriage
    Bali Rai
    3

  • Oliver Cromwell and his Warts
    Alan MacDonald
    3

  • Old Magic
    Marianne Curley
    3

  • Bluebeard's Castle
    Gene Kemp
    3

  • DK Guide to Weather
    Michael Allaby
    3

  • Vampyr Legion
    Alan Gibbons
    3

  • Stuck in Neutral
    Terry Trueman
    2

Books About Children's Books

  • Schicklgruber
    Robert Colling-Pyper
    Margaret Stavridi
    5

  • Children's Literature
    Peter Hunt
    4

  • Take Up Thy Bed and Walk: Death, Disability and Cure in Classic Fiction for Girls
    Lois Keith
    4

  • Hans Christian Andersen: the life of a storyteller
    Jackie Wullschlager
    Allen Lane
    4

BfK News

LONGLIST ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2020 KLAUS FLUGGE PRIZE

The longlist for the 2020 Klaus Flugge Prize has been announced. Now in its fifth year, the Klaus Flugge Prize is awarded to the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s picture book illustration. It honours Klaus Flugge, founder of publisher Andersen Press and a supremely influential figure in picture books.

Look Up!

read more...
WHO WON THE LAUGH OUT LOUD BOOK AWARDS?

The winners of the Laugh Out Loud Book Awards 2020 have just been announced.

read more...
BRANFORD BOASE AWARD 2020: LONGLIST ANNOUNCED

Branford Boase Award logo

read more...
EMPATHYLAB ANNOUNCES 2020 READ FOR EMPATHY BOOK COLLECTION

Raising A Generation of Empathic Citizens

Empathy Day logo

read more...
JASBINDER BILAN WINS COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD WITH HER DEBUT NOVEL

Jasbinder Bilan

read more...
COSTA CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARD 2019: SHORTLIST FEATURES

Former Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman and acclaimed author Jenny Downham are on the shortlist for the 2019 Costa Children’s Book Award alongside newcomers Jasbinder Bilan and Nicholas Downing.

Costa Book Awards logo

Click the links below to read new Books for Keeps feature articles on each of the shortlisted authors.

read more...
THE IBBY LIST OF OUSTANDING BOOKS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Dr Rebecca Butler writes.

Readers of Books for Keeps will remember that IBBY (the International Board on Books for Young People) arranges every two years a competition to identify the very best books for young readers featuring disability or designed to be read by young people with disabilities. Last time this list was compiled in 2017/18 I was the coordinator for the UK section.

read more...
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

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