Books of the Year 2015


This year, our hard working reviewers have read and considered over 350 books for your information and delectation. The children’s book market is in a rude state of health with a huge variety of books for children of all ages and all tastes being produced by an ever growing number of publishers: indeed, as the big publishing houses merge to form mega- companies, a wave of new, smaller companies  unusual books. Look out for , Two Hoots, Old Barn Books, Alma Junior and Tiny Owl amongst others. But which new books were the best of 2015? We asked some of our regular writers for their nominations.


experienced the real thing when she was fifteen. Her story now draws deeply from memories of that time and is quite unforgettable. So too is William Sutcliffe’s Concentr8. Its target is the current over-promotion of drugs designed to cure alleged hyper-activity in children. Each chapter of an exciting story set in a drug-dependent near-future starts with chilling evidence of what is actually happening now. Unmissable.


Amanda Mitchison, author (Crog is out now)


and journalist Look out for the Hedgehugs series by Steve Wilson and Lucy Tapper. The original Hedgehugs solved the mystery of why all our drawers are full of odd socks (the answer has something to do with hedgehogs and with hugging …). Now with Horace and Hattiepillar they have overcome the ‘tricky second album’ problem. Jonathan Stroud writes compelling adventure stories which children can skitter through, but which also contain deeper, more complex resonances. His Lockwood & Co series, set in a fantastical Britain beset with murderous ghosts, is endlessly inventive, sophisticated, adroitly written and funny. Book three, The Hollow Boy, where Lucy tries to engage with the ghosts rather than simply exterminate them, is the very best of the bunch. And there is still so much back story to unfold …


Ferelith Hordon, Editor, Books for Keeps How can one choose just one book of the year? Can I slip a few more in – Jessica’s Ghost by Andrew Norriss, or Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine? A picture book – perhaps Lily and Bear by Lisa Stubbs? But, arriving just in time is Railhead by Philip Reeve. This is the book I was waiting for – breathtakingly imaginative (singing trains!),


beautifully


written and breathlessly exciting. I travelled through space with its hero Zen and would like to travel more. This is Philip Reeve at his best; taking the conventional and making it out of this world.


Nicholas Tucker, honorary senior lecturer in Cultural and Community Studies at


Sussex University Girl on a Plane is a gripping as well as compassionate description of a plane hijacking in 1970. Its author,


Miriam Moss, 8 Books for Keeps No.215 November 2015 actually


Tony Bradman, author, Chair of the Siobhan Dowd Trust and Vice Chair of the Authors’


Licensing and Collecting Society For me this year’s most impressive book was My Name’s Not Friday, a wonderful YA novel by Jon Walter, the story of a young black boy who is tricked into slavery in Civil War America. It’s epic in scope, with a gripping plot that’s full of twists and turns and dramatic surprises, but all built on a rock-solid foundation of deep historical research and superb writing. The characters are great too, not least young Samuel himself, and it’s packed with insight into the roots of racism, the problems of religion, and human life in general. Not to be missed!


Joy Court is a consultant on reading and libraries, Chair of the CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenway


Medals, and reviews editor of the School Librarian. 2015 has been such a good year this is an impossible task, but my first pick has to be Daniel Hahn’s Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature – rarely a day goes by without spending a few minutes browsing this fascinating, invaluable treasure. For the grandchildren Please Mr Panda by Steve Antony has been the number one hit and just plain please is no longer enough in our households! A Great Big Cuddle (Rosen and Riddell) is proving a great big giggle too.


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