Issue No. 136 - September 2002
This issue's cover illustration is from Jill Murphy's All for One.
Jill Murphy is interviewed by Joanna Carey .
Thanks to Walker Books for their help with this September cover.
Articles In This Issue
A recent survey amongst 14-year-olds revealed a distinct lack of interest in politics and a correspondingly low opinion of MPs whom they describe not just as ‘uncool’, but positively ‘boring, long-winded and untruthful’. It is perhaps no surprise therefore that the impetus for the recent introduction of Citizenship into the curriculum came from a politician, one David Blunkett. Whether this new subject will succeed in raising poor electoral turnout – only 39% of 18-25 year olds voted in the last general election – is yet to be seen, but if it succeeds in its aim of producing responsible and active citizens for the future, one can only applaud. Sue Unstead explores.
MORE »Korky Paul’s anarchic style with its scribbly line and wild characterisation is unmistakeable. Here he explains the thinking behind his recent picture book, Captain Teachum’s Buried Treasure.
MORE »Jill Murphy interviewed by Joanna Carey
‘On her first day at the academy each pupil was given a broomstick and taught to ride it, which takes quite a long time and isn’t nearly as easy as it looks. Halfway through the first term they were each presented with a black kitten which they trained to ride the broomsticks … At the end of the first year each pupil received a copy of The Popular Book of Spells, a three inch thick volume bound in black leather. This was not really to be used as they already had paperback editions for the classroom, but like the cats it was another part of tradition.’
MORE »Teenagers are too often seen as a problem or a commercial opportunity. ‘Citizenship’ aims to inculcate responsibilities but can it also give teens a sense of the Other? And in a world controlled by adults, including the teen fiction arena, could teens be given their voice? James Watson explores.www.korkypaul.com
MORE »Now 18 months, Hal loves to have the same books read over and over again. His father, Roger Mills, on the importance of predictability.
MORE »Over the past twenty-five years teachers of Gypsy and Traveller children have faced the dilemma that the texts generally available in schools for social studies, history, language and literature generally omit all mention of Travellers. In doing so most school books do not merely bolster anti-Gypsy racism by giving a false view of society and history, but they also put Traveller children off education, often for good by giving them the tradition that a knowledge of their own identity is incompatible with academic knowledge. They have reacted to that dilemma by producing their own work. Thomas Acton explains.
MORE »The circus around the Carnegie and Greenaway Medals continues to grow with the awards achieving extensive media coverage – and this can only be good news for children’s books. Meanwhile the Carnegie/Greenaway schools’ shadowing scheme goes from strength to strength and BfK is privileged to reproduce here reviews of the Carnegie shortlisted books by pupils from Bristol Grammar School. But what of this year’s winning books? Rosemary Stones investigates.
MORE »The Carnegie shortlisted books are reviewed by teacher, Nick Attwood, and pupils from Bristol Grammar School. They were originally published on the Carnegie website. Thanks to Lucy Shepherd, part-time teacher/librarian.
MORE »To what extent do books exist which promote in young minds respect for and understanding of Muslims and their beliefs, lifestyles and practices? To the extent that such books exist, do they promote cultural diversity and combat racial or religious stereotyping? Shereen Pandit investigates.
MORE »MA Children’s Book Illustration at APU, Cambridge
Martin Salisbury, Course Director
MA Children’s Book Illustration
Department of Art and Design
Anglia Polytechnic University
MORE »NEWS
MORE »Rachel Anderson on a war novel that is fast, vivid, economical and truthful …
MORE »Chosen by Year 8 and 9 (12-14 year old) pupils from Glenmoor School, Bournemouth.
MORE »(Sorry, Peter, that’s what they call it.)
MORE »Reviews In This Issue
Hassan, a refugee from Somalia, spends his first day at his new school in Britain. Everything is so different and it is hard for him to respond to friendliness from his new classmates. His imaginative teacher invites him to paint a picture and in this way Hassan is at last able to communicate the terrible things that happened to his family in Somalia when his home was burnt and his uncle shot.
When 13-year-old Nathan's parents split up the news comes as a shock. Ironically, his mum is an Agony Aunt but her skills appear to have deserted her as she springs more and more surprises on her son. The greatest of these is her plan to move to Cornwall and it is an angry Nathan who arrives in St Ives for a Christmas of house hunting.
'Jake, aged 12, is the only child on an Australian island which his parents have set up as an "Adults Only" holiday resort, guaranteed child-free. Jake has had to spend his childhood in the shadows of concealment, since his visible presence would ruin business.
Louise Rennison's own reading of teenage Georgia Nicolson's diary is a triumph. Miraculously she sounds convincingly like a teenager, capturing perfectly Georgia's extreme mood swings from elation to despair as she may - or may not - have been noticed by the Sex God, tangled with the cat Angus or improved her looks (not!) with a pair of tweezers.
Few heroes in children's fiction can boast that by the age of thirteen they have contributed, under the pseudonym Doctor F. Roy Dean Schlippe, an article to The Psychologists' Journal. But, then, Artemis Fowl is no ordinary hero.
Doubtless many young people who read this novel will already have seen the film on which it is based. Many of my Asian/African friends found the film hilarious and look forward to reading the book.
A useful addition to Wayland's 'Famous Lives' series, this pictorial biography charts the inexorable rise of computer whizz-kid Bill Gates, whose programming skills and business acumen enabled him to become head of a multi-billion dollar business.
Billy the Bird, the story of a little boy's unlikely ability to fly up and away out of his cot - but always to return home safely - is one of Dick King-Smith's dottiest and most loveable. It shows what a good storyteller he is - even when he moves away from his trademark animals.
A time-slip into London in the Blitz is occasioned by a visit to Eden camp in Yorkshire. World War II mad George Wetherall learns that there was more than the Dunkirk Spirit of popular myth - there was also deprivation, loss, pain and those who went through the pockets of their own dead to steal ration books and other valuable papers.
This latest addition to the 'Fantastic Journey' series for children of about eight to ten years tells of the three-month journey north through Canada to the shores of the Arctic Ocean made by female Caribou to their 'birthing grounds'.
This biography of Chinwe Roy, aimed at 9-12 year-olds, is part of Tamarind's 'Black Profiles' series, aimed at providing positive role models for children. An account of her life from her early years
'Claydon clings to his mother - to her leg to be precise, for it is there that he feels safest - Claydon's mum is an action woman. Cowell's cheerful, loosely structured pen and watercolour drawings su
Echoes of many earlier fantasies may be heard by readers of Coraline - Through the Looking-Glass, for instance, or Masefield's The Box of Delights, or Catherine Storr's Marianne Dreams. But such is the originality and power of Gaiman's splendid novel that future reviewers may find themselves noting 'echoes of Coraline'.
This novel has computer games which become fascinatingly real, teenage boy-girl relationships, child abuse, bullying - and all in a school setting. Brad loves the realism of the new game, 'borrowed' from Colford as some payment for saving him from the worst of the bullying at school.
Here are two samples from the publishers' 'high-drama series' looking at 'momentous days in the last century when great and terrible things transpired in 24 hours' to 'leave an impact... for decades afterwards'.
The author's interest in and commitment to dance led to her study of the work of Edgar Degas, the painter who brought to life the efforts of young ballet dancers at the Paris Opera in perfecting their skills.
The Dimanche Diller trilogy by the late and much missed Henrietta Branford is again available. The first book won the Smarties prize in 1994, for the 6-8 years old category although I feel its plot twists, a multitude of bizarrely named characters and language may be more suitable for a slightly older audience. All three books are pacy fairy tale reads. The first and lengthier book introduces our heroine, orphan Dimanche Diller. It tells of the wicked Valburga Vilemile's attempts to swindle poor Dimanche out of her inheritance by pretending to be her long lost aunt. Help comes in the form of Dimache's nanny, Polly Pugh, who becomes her guardian angel. In Dimanche Diller in Danger, Valburga's rather dim, but ultimately likeable nephew, Wolfie T Volfango, is introduced. He flies over from America, having been summoned by his evil aunt, to conduct a mission to kidnap Dimanche and demand a ransom, whilst Valburga is detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. This time there's no Polly Pugh to help out. Dimanche Diller at Sea finds plucky little Dimanche being pursued by a new enemy, Professor Verdigris. Dimanche has to find the one person who can help her get back the stolen deeds to her ancestral home, Hilton Hall.
The Dimanche Diller trilogy by the late and much missed Henrietta Branford is again available. The first book won the Smarties prize in 1994, for the 6-8 years old category although I feel its plot twists, a multitude of bizarrely named characters and language may be more suitable for a slightly older audience. All three books are pacy fairy tale reads. The first and lengthier book introduces our heroine, orphan Dimanche Diller. It tells of the wicked Valburga Vilemile's attempts to swindle poor Dimanche out of her inheritance by pretending to be her long lost aunt. Help comes in the form of Dimache's nanny, Polly Pugh, who becomes her guardian angel. In Dimanche Diller in Danger, Valburga's rather dim, but ultimately likeable nephew, Wolfie T Volfango, is introduced. He flies over from America, having been summoned by his evil aunt, to conduct a mission to kidnap Dimanche and demand a ransom, whilst Valburga is detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. This time there's no Polly Pugh to help out. Dimanche Diller at Sea finds plucky little Dimanche being pursued by a new enemy, Professor Verdigris. Dimanche has to find the one person who can help her get back the stolen deeds to her ancestral home, Hilton Hall.
The Dimanche Diller trilogy by the late and much missed Henrietta Branford is again available. The first book won the Smarties prize in 1994, for the 6-8 years old category although I feel its plot twists, a multitude of bizarrely named characters and language may be more suitable for a slightly older audience. All three books are pacy fairy tale reads. The first and lengthier book introduces our heroine, orphan Dimanche Diller. It tells of the wicked Valburga Vilemile's attempts to swindle poor Dimanche out of her inheritance by pretending to be her long lost aunt. Help comes in the form of Dimache's nanny, Polly Pugh, who becomes her guardian angel. In Dimanche Diller in Danger, Valburga's rather dim, but ultimately likeable nephew, Wolfie T Volfango, is introduced. He flies over from America, having been summoned by his evil aunt, to conduct a mission to kidnap Dimanche and demand a ransom, whilst Valburga is detained at Her Majesty's pleasure. This time there's no Polly Pugh to help out. Dimanche Diller at Sea finds plucky little Dimanche being pursued by a new enemy, Professor Verdigris. Dimanche has to find the one person who can help her get back the stolen deeds to her ancestral home, Hilton Hall.
'Lily-Lu mischievously plays a variety of QUIET games around the sleeping baby. As the text gently builds up each fresh scene, the illustrations shows us disasters about to happen. A book that could b
'Blossom was a lucky girl. She had two grandmothers.' So begins this charming picture book. Not such an unusual state of affairs of course, but what is not mentioned in the text - and what gives the story its underlying dynamic - is that one grandmother is black and the other white.
In this pair of books, King-Smith shows that he has not lost his touch for writing simple yet enjoyable books for young readers. The plots are essentially straightforward with light touches of humour. As usual, King-Smith is able to drop in facts about the world of nature without ever seeming remotely didactic, and the illustrations are quirky and lend well to the text.
This novel, one in a series called 'Survivors', is closely based on the catastrophic events which occurred in Omagh, Northern Ireland, in August 1998. It is difficult to quarrel with the intention of such a book, since it acts as a potent reminder of the resilience within the human spirit which allows it to overcome even the most horrific of personal tragedies.
Children love a challenge, and the three neighbouring farmers in this story have a common problem - their cornfields are being devastated by mice. Farmers Big and Bluster set about building the perfect mousetrap.
Many readers will be familiar with Impey's lively retellings of popular traditional stories either from the original collection, The Orchard Book of Fairy Tales or, embellished with Peter Bailey's expressive line drawings, the small book editions of individual tales.
In this pair of books, King-Smith shows that he has not lost his touch for writing simple yet enjoyable books for young readers. The plots are essentially straightforward with light touches of humour. As usual, King-Smith is able to drop in facts about the world of nature without ever seeming remotely didactic, and the illustrations are quirky and lend well to the text.
Here are two samples from the publishers' 'high-drama series' looking at 'momentous days in the last century when great and terrible things transpired in 24 hours' to 'leave an impact... for decades afterwards'.
'Jade finds herself having to adjust to new family circumstances. Her father, increasingly prone to depression, suffers a nervous breakdwon and goes violently berserk, the prelude to a period in psychiatric hospital.
These three small format board books are part of an ongoing Tamarind series, dealing with simple concepts such as up, down, under, around etc, and typical of the stock-in-trade of most publishers for the very young.
These three small format board books are part of an ongoing Tamarind series, dealing with simple concepts such as up, down, under, around etc, and typical of the stock-in-trade of most publishers for the very young.
These three small format board books are part of an ongoing Tamarind series, dealing with simple concepts such as up, down, under, around etc, and typical of the stock-in-trade of most publishers for the very young.
These three small format board books are part of an ongoing Tamarind series, dealing with simple concepts such as up, down, under, around etc, and typical of the stock-in-trade of most publishers for the very young.
What an introduction for the very young to McNaughton's wonderful stories and pictures about Preston Pig and Mr Wolf! This small format 'Little' series, mirroring the full text versions, will delight the toddler and pre-school child.
What an introduction for the very young to McNaughton's wonderful stories and pictures about Preston Pig and Mr Wolf! This small format 'Little' series, mirroring the full text versions, will delight the toddler and pre-school child.
What an introduction for the very young to McNaughton's wonderful stories and pictures about Preston Pig and Mr Wolf! This small format 'Little' series, mirroring the full text versions, will delight the toddler and pre-school child.
What an introduction for the very young to McNaughton's wonderful stories and pictures about Preston Pig and Mr Wolf! This small format 'Little' series, mirroring the full text versions, will delight the toddler and pre-school child.
Bob is an ordinary guy with an extraordinary job. He gets up and has his breakfast and cycles off to work just like you or I might. It's even important that he gets to work for nine. But there the resemblance finishes, for Bob's job is to be the Man on the Moon.
This is the latest in a series of picture books by Wildsmith with a religious theme. Drawing on gospel and apocryphal sources it tells the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Starting with her parents, Anna and Joachim, who are told by an angel that they will have a daughter whose name will be known in all the world, the book concludes with Mary's death and her assumption into heaven.
'It's a town eat town world and Tom has been brought up to believe that municipal Darwinism is a noble and beautiful system. He joins the celebrations as the great traction city of London speeds across the Out-Country gobbling up smaller towns in its path and recycling them for spare parts.
The theme of these 'concepts' books is similarities and differences. Children are helped to notice the differences and similarities between animals in My Beak, Your Beak and between people in My Nose, Your Nose. Knowing the words 'similar' and 'different' and using them appropriately helps clinch the concepts.
The theme of these 'concepts' books is similarities and differences. Children are helped to notice the differences and similarities between animals in My Beak, Your Beak and between people in My Nose, Your Nose. Knowing the words 'similar' and 'different' and using them appropriately helps clinch the concepts.
Ross has produced another winner! Sometimes picture books involving numbers or counting seem contrived, but this one just rattles along. 'Ow!' the tale begins. Centipede has hurt his toe. But which one? Having found it (at last) and kissed it better, Mum decides he ought to have some shoes, so off they go and buy fifty lefts and fifty rights.
The Karmidee are a people diversely gifted with magical powers, and once they lived safely and secretly in their City of Trees, ringed by protective mountains. Then an earthquake allowed human beings to break in and occupy the land, forcing the Karmidee to the fringes of their own city.
Oxford's student dictionary is squarely aimed at older schoolchildren up to A-levels, and it largely hits its target. Robust and compact, it is comprehensive enough for most purposes. Definitions are concise and clear and type design is clean.
'Pip has fine accessible poems for children although I can do without the twee moments - poems about matchbox monsters, tiny elephants and dinosaurs and so on. The poetry I hear gets into the verse in more straightforward things, eg in poems like "Listening in Bed", "Insect", and "Pip".
By 'Rainforest' this series means Tropical Rainforest, the denizens and extent of which these two samples consider. Within the framework of the shrinking and increasingly exploited rainforest, each volume deals with a section of the animal kingdom, its diversity, adaptation to habitat, and its situation and survival in the face of an increase in many kinds of human pressure.
By 'Rainforest' this series means Tropical Rainforest, the denizens and extent of which these two samples consider. Within the framework of the shrinking and increasingly exploited rainforest, each volume deals with a section of the animal kingdom, its diversity, adaptation to habitat, and its situation and survival in the face of an increase in many kinds of human pressure.
Rosie loves the security of her own home, garden, toys, and the cats next door. She does not wish to go away on holiday, especially as all the things she wants to take won't fit into the car. But of course the holiday is fun, and soon Rosie does not want to go home.
'The odd one out in the Casson family is Saffron, who five years earlier found out that the other children were not her siblings but her cousins. Saffy is adopted, following her mother's death in a car crash.
Not a book for the sensitive, Scritch Scratch bravely goes where few children's books have gone before - to deal with the subject of head lice. The little louse who climbs into Miss Calypso's classroom decides that the teacher's cascading red curls will be the ideal home for the large louse family which soon arrives.
Briony's step-father Colin beats her mother - and Briony, too, on occasion. Paralysed by fear and torn by loyalty to her mother and a desire to live her own life, she remains silent - increasingly withdrawn from her friends and unable to confide in her boyfriend Ian.
Through his telescope Timothy keeps seeing what looks like a shark's fin but it turns out to be - when the page is turned and a wider-angled view revealed - a cat, a crow and Timothy's dad: not a shark in sight or is there? A story with all the child appeal you could wish for: a predictable, patterned rhyming text, peep holes, speech bubbles and a final twist in the tale, or should I say, fin, together with Sharratt's characteristic zesty illustrations.
From the opening sentence and its description of the Six Storey House standing 'like a potted palm: tall and thin and brownly dusty' this is a joy to read. Geraldine McCaughrean has retold hundreds of fairy tales and folk tales and here she draws on those storytelling traditions to transform an apparently simple tale of a house and its six sets of inhabitants into a magical and hugely beguiling story.
Spiggot is a boggart, or fairy blacksmith, and his quest does not officially begin until the penultimate chapter of this book, which is clearly intended to inaugurate yet another multi-volume saga about the deeds of mortals, fairies and animals in some parallel world both like and unlike our own.
Mike's foreign exchange student seems a bit strange and no wonder, he's not from France at all but another planet and he's on a mission to learn about humans. This sets the scene for some very funny situation comedy.
Before listing the species involved, Mackay wisely introduces the planetary situation in which this 'endangerment' occurs, discussing where evolution ends and endangerment starts and how they overlap. An examination of ecosystems as habitats follows and the 'Fragile Regions' of the globe receive particular attention.
Grorks are naturally shy nervous creatures, so our little grork has to be brave when his friend, the greep, wants them both to go to the dark wood. He sets out, well prepared for hazards in his life jacket, safety helmet and with his umbrella.
Since policy these days has to be made in triplicate, the slogan for literary guides must surely be 'analysis, analysis, analysis'. What group of readers is being addressed? What are the subjects that they may expect to find and how will those subjects be subdivided? How too will each entry be constructed in respect of factual information, editorial comment, and the clarification of relationships to other entries? What attention is to be paid to supplementary guidance in the way of introductory explanations, captioned illustrations, bibliographies, indexes etc?
It's odd to realise that an entire new generation of Peter and Susie Paynes has grown up in the fifteen years since the appearance of the first of these titles. In between, there's been the TV series, teen heroes have come and gone, and the teenage reading market has been flooded with diaries that deal in a light-hearted way with the anxieties and excitements of the adolescent years.
It's odd to realise that an entire new generation of Peter and Susie Paynes has grown up in the fifteen years since the appearance of the first of these titles. In between, there's been the TV series, teen heroes have come and gone, and the teenage reading market has been flooded with diaries that deal in a light-hearted way with the anxieties and excitements of the adolescent years.
When Sam's parents win an all expenses paid trip to the moon, seemingly kind neighbour Hilda Hardbottom steps in to take care of Sam while Mum and Dad are away. But it is not only Hilda's bottom which is hard, so is her heart.
It is hard to believe that Tucker could be responsible for anything rough, even a guide to children's books. So it proves. This is the familiar engaging Tucker, who wears his considerable knowledge lightly and puts it across with charm and reassurance. These are two little fat books, small enough to put in your pocket and consult in the bookshop or library. They are intended as a guide to the best in children's books for interested parents, and, apart from substantial reviews of individual titles (about 400 words), they are packed with sensible advice and anecdotal information about books and children, authors and illustrators, that would provide their readers with the background and confidence to move on to make their own choice and support their children in making theirs.
It is hard to believe that Tucker could be responsible for anything rough, even a guide to children's books. So it proves. This is the familiar engaging Tucker, who wears his considerable knowledge lightly and puts it across with charm and reassurance. These are two little fat books, small enough to put in your pocket and consult in the bookshop or library. They are intended as a guide to the best in children's books for interested parents, and, apart from substantial reviews of individual titles (about 400 words), they are packed with sensible advice and anecdotal information about books and children, authors and illustrators, that would provide their readers with the background and confidence to move on to make their own choice and support their children in making theirs.
This well-written collection of linked stories is by the award-winning author of Double Act, The Illustrated Mum, and The Suitcase Kid. Cool teacher, Mr Speed, sets up a super-cool Worry Website for his class.
The year is 2153 and in the outer domains of space the Xenocides are plundering an observation station: retaliation is in the hands of a Lieutenant Joel Gilmore, his team of humans and an extra-terrestrial species of quadrupeds known as Rusties.
In the hands of Carol Ann Duffy and Joel Stewart, the unlikely subject of the underwater farmyard makes an astonishing and delightful picture book. The poet's skill, gentle humour, word play, and careful musical rhyme scheme are matched by pictures of ethereal balance, in which smiling sheep and pigs float by in a daft but perfect choreography.
Wolf on the Fold is a hopeful journey: six vignettes which form a living tableau of family life from 1935 to the present day. These memorable depictions of domestic scenes are vehicles for optimism, continuity and renewal.