Current Issue No. 171 - July 2008
Cover Story
This issue’s cover illustration by James Mayhew is from Katie and the British Artists. James Mayhew discusses his work on page 3. Thanks to Orchard Books for their help with this July cover.
Because the landscape format of the Katie books is entirely at odds with the A4 portrait format of the magazine, a composite image has been assembled. The pastiche of Constable’s Cornfield is in fact just a section of an illustration, taken from a much larger double page spread from within the book. A frame has been added to complete the effect.
Articles In This Issue
How to add your comments onto our Forum on Age-ranging
1. You will need to log in and/or register before you can post/add your comments (see below).
MORE »
Once again the thorny issue of age ranging has raised its head following children’s publishers’ decision to start printing a suggested age range on fiction titles. This move is part of a strategy to grow the market following a report conducted by Book Marketing Ltd that showed that around one fifth of those questioned did not know which books to choose for their children, age suitability being a particular stumbling block.
MORE »
Picture books that introduce children to art are now a standard requirement in the bookshops of our galleries and arts centres. It wasn’t always so – James Mayhew’s pioneering Katie books, which aim to teach children about art via a story, had to wait to find the understanding and appreciation they now enjoy. James Mayhew explains.
MORE »
Book buyers will have started to notice something a little different when browsing the children’s sections of their local bookshops. On the back covers of some of the books will be a small black and white image indicating the age of reader that book might suit. But is age ranging a good thing? Caroline Horn explores.
MORE »
As part of its campaign to promote picture books, Booktrust announced in April the names of the top ten illustrators (out of a possible 250) who represent ‘the best rising talent in the field of illustration today’. What does their work tell us about the nature of picture book publishing in the UK? Joanna Carey discusses.
MORE »
While the European dictators of the 1930s systematically supplied their young readers with approved fascist texts, Britain continued to leave its children’s literature to the vagaries of market forces. So what kind of reading matter was available to the young? Nicholas Tucker discusses Owen Dudley Edwards’ recently published history, British Children’s Fiction in the Second World War.
MORE »
Jerry Spinelli interviewed by Jeanne Clancy Watkins
MORE »
Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen reports on myriad activities in schools, announcing the Ten Best New Illustrators in Bologna and getting the Funny Prize underway.
MORE »Dear Editor
Ref. Michael Rosen’s recent piece in BfK (‘Laureate Log’ in BfK No. 170) and the notion that there is no longer time to develop trainee teachers’ understanding of how to help children enjoy books, I’m writing because I do ‘know otherwise’!
MORE »Chosen by Year 7 to Year 9 (11-14 year-olds) pupils from Wycombe High School, Buckinghamshire.
MORE »John Bell (1922 - 2008)
Brian Alderson writes…
MORE »
Paul Stewart on an illustrated story that is ‘engaging, funny and endlessly digressive’…
MORE »
Hal is nearly seven and a half and has read a whole book by himself! Reading now seems fun and bribery is a further incentive. Hal’s father, psychodynamic counsellor, Roger Mills, explains.
MORE »
Brian Alderson
‘I jus’ won’t do it. I jus’ won’t go to any ole weddin’... an’ I jus’ won’t be made look ridiclus...’ So you can see why he’s JUST – WILLIAM
MORE »Reviews In This Issue
Harris is a ‘small hare with very big feet’ and a loving grandad to introduce him to the world and encourage him to set out confidently on his own.
A quiet boy by day, Eliot is transformed at the stroke of midnight into a superhero.
Point Beach High is an American High School, near to the ocean with kids whose families all seem to have hot tubs and boats: one popular, athletic, golden boy, three pretty girls, three broken hearts.
Tudor England saw the brutal colonisation of the American Indians by Sir Walter Raleigh.
Pielichaty may not quite inhabit the same fictional stratosphere as Jacqueline Wilson, but she has her own solid fan-base, on the basis of her Simone titles and the popular Af
Shakespeare’s London, as much as the young protagonist Pip, is at the centre of Lacey’s entertaining tale of a boy, a bear and a great city in which only the enterprising or the ruthless survive.
As with Bee’s excellent debut, Whatever, this is a truly post-modern picture book.
This novel starts with a fine swing as teenage Theo escapes from his bodyguard in order to enjoy a few moments of freedom.
Set in 7th-century Britain, Bloodline is the story of a quest for family, identity and love.
Suddenly the Cathars and the Occitain are popular as subjects for a story, for here is a book following on from Kate Mosse’s Labrinthe set in this area, and dealing with the difficu
Nudge, the little anteater, adores his big brother Conker. Nudge wants to do everything Conker does, and usually succeeds in exasperating his big brother.
Counting in the Sea 123! features a little mermaid hiding near various numbers of underwater animals. She meets everything from an octopus to dolphins and starfish.
Bunker 10 author, J A Henderson has produced another taut thriller, which compels from the first page.
A Second World War story with a difference, as the title suggests.
Here’s another cut-and-paste assembly job from the leaders in that field. Encyclopedia of Ecology, eh? We’ll see…
Little Frog loves having his mother all to himself and is devastated when Mum asks if he would like some brothers and sisters… He would not!
Dragon Orb, first in the ‘Firestorm’ series, is another story about young people flying around on dragons.
From the ‘Racing Reads’ series for ‘confident readers’, this title is one of a set of books about two little driftwood characters who live in an upturned boat furnished with the products of be
The true story of a young refugee forced to leave her home in the Republic of Congo and travel in search of safety.
The first thing that strikes you about this title is the pictures – from the cover onwards, bold, some brash, some cartoony, others dramatic, each of the eleven stories illustrated by a different pe
Gardening is currently fashionable and the design of this book is as good as you’d expect from DK in collaboration with the Royal Horticultural Society.
Leander Deeny’s first novel is a kind of gothic fantasy, part melodrama and part farce. There are echoes of Alice in Wonderland about it, and also reminders of T H White.
Rinaldi’s opening spread shows fields suddenly lit by a sun just out of view, barely penetrating the drifting clouds.
Following a trend started by Sharon Creech, Hugging the Rock is a verse novel that deals with a difficult subject with honesty and style.
It is a matter of fact that Rembrandt had an illegitimate daughter, Cornelia, by his maidservant Hendrickje and Lynn Cullen has taken this and written Cornelia’s story.
In this short first person rhyming narrative a small girl shares her thoughts about the various kinds of dogs she does not want before finally revealing her ideal canine pet.
Baby Owl goes for a walk in the woods. All the animals think that he is cute. This infuriates him as he wants to be recognised as a sleek and powerful hunting and killing machine.
24 poets from across the English speaking world comment on a poem they have contributed to this collection.
Is This My Nose? aims to enhance the game of reciprocal pointing that is so often enjoyed by young toddlers.
These four picture books from BAAF have specific themes useful in helping children with particular life problems.
The sheer length of this novel, its cast of adults and young teenagers, and its themes of illegitimacy, divorce, pregnancy, and family conflict, could all suggest that Just Henry shou
Littlenose is a little boy from fifty thousand years ago. His people live in caves and hunt to eat.
From a highly respected author whose books consistently expose political and social injustice comes this gut-wrenching story about modern-day slavery.
The good thing about a collection of short stories, Gaiman tells his readers in the introduction to M is for Magic, is that you don’t have to like them all.
Molly is delighted with her new puppy Max. But Max wishes to follow Molly whenever she goes out. Alas, an open window affords an opportunity and Max gets lost.
This portrayal of an aspect of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict uses the familiar literary contrivance of a relationship across the battle lines.
This is a heart-warming story, drawn and told with Chichester Clark’s usual abundance of charm. The author is a master at bringing characters to life.
These four picture books from BAAF have specific themes useful in helping children with particular life problems.
Part of a series celebrating Britons who have made some significant contribution in their field, whether in science or the arts, sport or politics, this new title selects 21 British musicians and enco
Take two sisters: rebellious teenage Jodie and devoted book-loving Pearl.
‘The pilot [of the battered cargo balloon] was a lean young man with a large hat, a laconic disposition, and a thin moustache.’ Devotees of ‘His Dark Materials’ will be delighted to encounter
The various meanderings, false starts, mistakes and retraced footsteps of the journey that Joe, Kenny and Sim embark upon as a mark of respect and remembrance for friend Ross, nimbly echo the paths th
These four picture books from BAAF have specific themes useful in helping children with particular life problems.
Posy is a kitten; she’s also a ‘whiskers wiper, crayon swiper, playful wrangler, knitting tangler…’ and much, much more.
This is a reissue of a collection of a dozen poems and stories first published over 15 years ago: it has not lost any of its magic and my young audience were as entranced as those of the nineties used
The simplest of poems with the simplest of illustrations make up this stunning picture book.
Referencing and reminiscent of Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, dark desires, deep passions and a vivid landscape combine to create a tale of family life that traverses generations
He’s a skeleton in a black suit, wide-brimmed hat snapped down low over the eye-sockets.
Set at the time of the French Revolution, this lively adventure sweeps from rural England to London and thence to Paris itself.
These four picture books from BAAF have specific themes useful in helping children with particular life problems.
Singleton has garnered numerous accolades for her previous fantasy and historical novels.
Ten-year-old Oliver McKenzie Brown is about to move home to a country house named Gullywith. Before he moves house, stones begin unaccountably appearing in his pockets.
It is 1899 and Basil lives in a lighthouse on the Maine coast with his parents, but even a lighthouse is boring in January when all it seems to do is snow, then snow some more… It takes a philosophi
The notion that the past never leaves us is confirmed by these two titles in a new primary school history series from Evans.
The author journeys up the Amazon collecting and relating stories.
The Liverpool of the emerging Beatles and the Cuban Missile Crisis and the even more fascinating and spooky mystery of why 14-year-old Laura seems to be a younger version of one of her teachers, the m
Jack, Annie and Davey’s father is an inventor, whose latest inspiration is a time-travelling vintage motorbike.
This fantasy for teenagers is Book One of a series with the overall title ‘Chaos Walking’.
MaxiMi££ion Wolf talks the gangsta talk and walks the gangsta walk right down to the air bubbles in his Nike trainers (‘expensive, fashionable, black with subtle cream edging’).
A compilation of fifteen tales, most of them brief, from Europe, the Middle East, Russia, India, Afghanistan, Africa, Jamaica and America.
An inventive and amusing book from one of the UK’s most popular young author-artists. ‘All the birds had laid an egg. All except for Duck.
This tale is a version of a traditional narrative involving repetition as successive characters join the main one.
The little white bear is terribly proud of his white fur, his red hat, and the key in his middle that lets him sing a song.
This folktale from Indonesia and Malaysia is about a trickster who is a mouse-size deer called Kanchil.
Two years ago, I heard David Almond talk about a primitive quality of childhood, through which children have access to ancient powers of survival, imagination, healing, and perhaps redemption, which a
One stormy night, a young swineherd exploited by his cruel brother enters a menacing forest to save the life of one of the elven green folk who live there.
When the witch’s three children go to school there is bound to be trouble. New, timid Gemma is turned into a furniture-eating ogre.
Prince Florian, formerly known as Prince Pom Pom, is in trouble again; his father is losing his hair, which means he can no longer be king.
McKenzie’s much-praised award winner Girl, Missing was concerned with a kidnapped child.
Known in its original French as Tobie Lolness, de Fombelle’s novel has already enjoyed wide acclaim and won various awards.
In the second of the ‘Elizabethan Mysteries’ Ben’s company, Lord Bonner’s Men, are invited to play at the Rose Theatre and then to perform a new play in front of Elizabeth I on the 26th Decemb
The notion that the past never leaves us is confirmed by these two titles in a new primary school history series from Evans.
At the risk of creating more waste paper to recycle, one must applaud Watts for producing an up-to-date title on this most topical of subjects.
A cleverly designed hand puppet book – the hole in the middle has Sid’s big mouth hanging out of it. Perfect for young readers to stick their hands in and pretend to be Sid roaring or eating.