A win for Alex McCall! Scottish Children's Book Awards 2015

The winners of the Scottish Children's Book Awards 2015, run by Scottish Book Trust and funded by Creative Scotland, were announced today. Two of the authors were on their third win - Ross Collins (3-7) and Cathy MacPhail (12-16) - but Alex McCall is a first-timer, and one of Scotland's youngest published authors. He won the 8-11 category with Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens.



Alex McCall. Photo credit: Rob McDougall

I've written about Alex before: first when the shortlists for the award were announced when I described how I'd met him (briefly), and second when I chose to send Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens to Japan for the International Book Giving Day Swap that I took part in. So I feel a sort of connection with him, and I'm very glad he won. So is Alex! He said:

“There’s something of a feeling of coming full circle here. This is my first book and it got published through the Kelpies Prize. But the only reason that I found out about the Kelpies Prize is through a previous winning author coming to my school, through the Scottish Book Trust’s Live Literature Fund. So while I’m delighted to win I also feel very lucky that Scottish Book Trust exists in the first place. Being able to go into school and meet the children that you are writing for is fantastic enough as it is. Knowing that those kids have voted for you makes it even better. In general participating in the Awards has been a really good experience. It is just hard to believe that I’ve been lucky enough to actually win.”

Congratulations to Alex and, of course, massive thanks and congratulations to Scottish Book Trust for these fabulous awards. Here's the beautiful trophy Alex won.

This is the beautiful @justsomeartkid-designed trophy our 2015 Scottish Children's Book Award winners will win... pic.twitter.com/rhRdeTFvJ4
— Scottish Book Trust (@scottishbktrust) March 4, 2015

The book swap: books duly swapped!

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about getting the details of my partner in Zoe's International Book Giving Day Book Swap. Since then I have picked my book, sent it off and heard that it has arrived in Japan! That's it on the left - I chose it because I wanted to get something Scottish, it's a prizewinning book and I've even met the author, Alex McCall (here's where I explain about that.)

What is Attack of the giant robot chickens about? This is what it says on the back of the book:

"Why did the chicken cross the road? To take over the world! Giant robot chickens are terrorising the city of Aberdeen. Their aim: to peck out all signs of human resistance. The streets are empty, the adults have vanished and those left behind must hide from the powerful poultry or get scrambled! Jesse and his friends hatch a plot to stop the fowl fiends and take back their city - but when a gang of kids takes on an army of angry robot chickens, things don't eggs-actly go to plan."

I'm guessing Alex likes puns a lot! I hope the humour is something that will appeal to the 10-year old bi-lingual boy in Japan who now owns the book.

And what have I received in return? Well, Jo (the recipient's Mum) and I have corresponded by email a few times, and I received a lovely letter and card in the post (see left). Then today, my book arrived from the Book Depository. It's My neighbour Totoro, a novelisation by Tsugiko Kubo of one of Hayoa Miyazaki's films. I confess that I have only seen one of those (Kiki's delivery service) so I'm not very familiar with his work. Time to find out! This is an on-going story...

More information:

International Book Giving Day 2015

Zoe's Book Swap

Jo's blog

Scottish Children's Book Awards 2015 - shortlist announced

The nominees. Photo credit: Rob McDougall

The shortlist for the Scottish Children's Book Awards 2015 was announced today.  These are Scotland’s largest book awards, with a total prize fund of £12,000, and celebrate the most popular children’s and young adult books by Scottish authors or illustrators. For a full list of nominees in all three categories (3-7, 8-11 and 12-16) see the Scottish Book Trust website - they are running the awards, with support from Creative Scotland, for the eighth time.

The 8-11 list includes a debut book from one of the youngest published authors in Scotland (Alex McCall), and a children’s book from one of the best known authors in the world (Alexander McCall Smith) - and they have very similar names which means voters (Scotland's children) will have to be very careful with their choice!

Alex McCall. Photo credit: Rob McDougall

Claim to fame - I have actually met Alex McCall, even if only for five minutes. He was with his Mum as she arrived at an event which I'd helped Glasgow Women's Library to organise, and they recognised my name because I'd voted in a Twitter poll on whether the cover of Alex's book, Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens, should have a blue or orange background. Alex is only 20, and currently splits his time between promoting his book and studying Filmmaking and Screenwriting at the University of the West of Scotland in Ayr. He has already won the 2013 Kelpies Prize, and must have his fingers crossed for the double. He says “I'm overjoyed to be shortlisted for this Scottish Children's Book Award. It's fantastic to think that my first published novel could get a response like this.”

Robot Chickens is published by Kelpies, an imprint of Floris Books - it's a good year all round for them, as they have two more books shortlisted. Pyrate's Boy (E.B. Colin) is in the same category as Alex and KelpiesTeen Dark spell by Gill Arbuthnott is nominated for 12-16s.

Congratulations to Alex, Floris Books and everyone else nominated. The winners will be announced on 4th March 2015.