animals on each page in the rapidly shrinking forest and growing cityscape, and a satisfying twist at the end.


It is a great book to share and discuss with all ages and has been my most ‘bought’ book this year.


Daniel Hahn is an award-winning writer, editor and translator and national programme director of the British Centre for Literary Translation


In the year we got The Marvels, Fire Colour One, Railhead, Wolf Wilder, One and A Song for Ella Grey,


I’m actually


Novels I have loved: The Bolds (Clary and Roberts), Jessica’s Ghost (Norriss), Fire Colour One (Valentine), One (Crossan), Unbecoming (Downham) and Wolf Wilder (Rundell) but I could go on ...


Philip Womack, author (The King’s Shadow is out now) and reviewer In an alternate Victorian England, the daughter of a discredited scientist discovers his secret: a tree fed by lies which has the power to change reality. Set on a remote Channel Island, Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree is my book of the year by the longest of chalks, featuring feminism, revenge, superbly drawn characters, and a plot that is grippingly, swooningly involving, and constructed with the kind of stylish, arresting, inventive language that Hardinge has made her own. Superb.


Pam Dix, Chair of Ibby UK It was a delight to discover Barroux’s very colourful


bold and Where’s the


Elephant?, in total contrast to the charcoal drawings of the graphic Line of Fire. Barroux wanted to write about the deforestation of the Amazon after he had visited and seen this at first hand, and found his inspiration in Where’s Wally? The result


is a joy to look at, with powerful use of colour, including on the magnificent endpapers. There is the excitement of finding hidden


BOOKLIST Jessica’s Ghost, Andrew Norriss, David Fickling Books, 978-1-9102-0033-9, £10.99 hbk


Fire Colour One, Jenny Valentine, HarperCollins Children’s Books, 978-0-0075-1236-2, £6.99 pbk


Lily and Bear, Lisa Stubbs, Boxer Books, 978-1-9101-2605-9, £11.99


Railhead, Philip Reeve, Oxford, 978-0-1927-4275-9, £9.99 hbk


Girl on a Plane, Miriam Moss, Andersen Press, 978-1-7834-4331-4, £7.99 pbk


Concentr8, William Sutcliffe, Bloomsbury, 978-1-4088-6623-8, £12.99 hbk


Horace and Hattiepillar, Steve Wilson and Lucy Tapper, Maverick Arts, 978-1-8488-6163-3, £6.99 pbk


Lockwood & Co The Hollow Boy, Jonathan Stroud, Corgi Children’s, 978-0-5525-7314-6, £7.99 pbk


My Name’s Not Friday, Jon Walter, David Fickling Books, 978-1-9102-0043-8, £12.99 hbk


going to pick a book you probably haven’t even heard of. Tomiko Inui’s The Secret of the Blue Glass (tr. Ginny


Tapley Takemori) is the old-fashioned story of a family in a time of war; but the family in question is only 14cm tall, living happily on a shelf in an old house in Tokyo (they themselves are British) till WWII separates them. And this terrific story of courage, loyalty and love has also just become the first ever Carnegie-nominated translation!


Imogen Russell Williams is a journalist and editorial consultant specialising in children’s literature and YA


My stand-out title of 2015 is Jacqueline Wilson’s Katy, a retelling of Susan M Coolidge’s What Katy Did, and a strong contender, to me, for JW’s career best. After a severe fall, Katy, the mischievous, strong-willed eldest of six siblings, must learn to cope with the consequences. Unlike Coolidge’s heroine, Wilson’s Katy doesn’t wring saintliness from suffering, and there’s no neat, fairy-tale resolution to her story – barring miracles, she will be a wheelchair-user for the rest of her life. But she is determined to fight for and find joy, despite anger, grief and depression. A coruscating heartbreaker of a book.


The Oxford Companion to Children’s Literature, ed Daniel Hahn, Oxford, 978-0-1996-9514-0, £30.00 hbk


Please Mr Panda, Steve Anthony, Hodder Children’s Books, 978-1-4449-1665-2, £6.99 pbk


A Great Big Cuddle, Michael Rosen and Chris Riddell, Walker Books, 978-1-4063-4319-9, £14.99 hbk


One, Sarah Crossan, Bloomsbury, 978-1-4088-6311-4, £10.99 hbk


Unbecoming, Jenny Downham, David Fickling Books, 978-1-9102-0064-3, £14.99 hbk


Wolf Wilder, Katherine Rundell, Bloomsbury, 978-1-4088-6258-2, £12.99 hbk


Where’s the Elephant?, Barroux, Egmont, 978-1-4052-7648-1, £10.99 hbk


The Lie Tree, Frances Hardinge, Macmillan, 978-1-4472-6410-1, £6.99 pbk


The Secret of the Blue Glass, Tomiko Inui, trans Ginny Takemori, Pushkin Press, 978-1-7826-9034-4, £8.99


Katy, Jacqueline Wilson, Puffin, 978-0-1413-5396-8, £12.99 hbk Books for Keeps No.215 November 2015 9


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32