Red House Children's Book Awards

The Red House Children's Book Awards were announced on Saturday. These awards are unique in that it is the children themselves who vote for them (from a shortlist drawn up by children's book groups across the country.) The winners were:

Younger children: Chris Wormell for Scruffy bear and the six white mice (Jonathan Cape)

Younger readers: Liz Pichon for The brilliant world of Tom Gates (Scholastic)

Older readers and overall winner: Patrick Ness for A monster calls (Walker)

All 3 books are in stock here. There's a nice write-up in the Guardian with a bit more information.

Another award, the Branford Boase, which won't be announced till the summer, currently has a children's writing competition attached to it. Find more information here.

Big Book Babble

Yesterday saw the launch by Red House and Scholastic of a new book show, Big Book Babble, hosted by children’s comedian James Campbell. The first episode featured Andy Stanton (of Mr Gum fame) and Liz Pichon (Tom Gates author and illustrator). It is aimed at children aged 7-11 - and in case you missed it, is available to watch on-demand here. The show will be streamed live to schools regularly throughout term time and the next author to be featured (7th February) is Jacqueline Wilson. We have books by all of them in stock.

 

Roald Dahl Funny Prize (and Catalyst and Galaxy awards!)

The winners of the Roald Dahl Funny Prizes are announced today. I don't know what they are yet, but while I'm waiting I can tell you about two more recent awards:

The Catalyst Award is chosen by teenagers in North Lanarkshire and this year's winner is Alex Scarrow for his book, TimeRiders:

"Liam O'Connor should have died at sea in 1912. Maddy Carter should have died on a plane in 2010. Sal Vikram should have died in a fire in 2029. Yet moments before death, someone mysteriously appeared and said, 'take my hand'. Liam, Maddy and Sal have been recruited by the TimeRiders, to stop time travel from destroying the world." 9+

The Galaxy National Book Awards were announced on November 4th and the Children's Book of the Year is A monster calls by Patrick Ness. It could also win the overall title of Book of the Year if you vote for it here. The book is a special one, because it was completed by Patrick from the final idea of much-loved Carnegie Medal winner Siobhan Dowd, whose premature death from cancer prevented her from writing it herself.

"The monster showed up just after midnight. But it isn't the monster Conor's been expecting. He's been expecting the one from his nightmare, the one he's had nearly every night since his mother started her treatments. The monster in his back garden, though, this monster is something different. Something ancient, something wild." 12+

And while I was writing this, the Roald Dahl announcement has been made:

"A rhyming picture book about pirate cats has seized the bounty for the funniest book for children aged six and under in this year’s Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Cats ahoy! is written by Peter Bently (who was also shortlisted in 2009 for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize), and illustrated by Jim Field. It is joined on the podium by The brilliant world of Tom Gates, the winner of the seven to fourteen category, and the first in a series of books about Tom, an expert doodler and master of excuses, written and illustrated by Liz Pichon."

All the books sound great - and on Thursday we have the Guardian prize to look forward to as well!