Editorial 199: March 2013
It’s awards season. Over recent weeks the winners of the Blue Peter Book Award, the Red House Children’s Book Award, the Waterstones Prize and the Scottish Children’s Book Awards have all been announced. CILIP has revealed the shortlists for the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Carnegie Medal, and UKLA have unveiled the shortlist for their 2013 book award. At joint press conferences in Sweden and Bologna the committee of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA), the world’s largest award for children’s and young adult literature worth 506 000 Euro, named Argentine illustrator and author Isol this year’s winner. There’s no doubt that prize shortlistings and triumphs highlight books and authors, nor that they can engage readers and attract a wider audience, but for every book that makes a shortlist, there will be others, just as good, that couldn’t. Geraldine Brennan has turned a spotlight on ten such books in our Ten of the Best feature – every reader of Books for Keeps could probably add at least another ten to the list!
Awards
Blue Peter Book Award
Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story :Tom Gates: Genius Ideas, Mostly Liz Pichon, Scholastic, 978-1407134505, £6.99 pbk
Best Book with Facts: Horrible Science House of Horrors Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles Scholastic 978-1407116730 £12.99 hbk
Red House Children’s Book Award
Overall winner and Younger Children category winner: Spooky Spooky House Andrew Weale illus Lee Wildish Picture Corgi 978-0552561167 £6.99 pbk
Younger Readers category winner: Gangsta Granny by David Walliams, illus Tony Ross HarperCollins, 978-0007371464, £6.99 pbk
Older Readers category winner: The Medusa Project: Hit Squad by Sophie McKenzie Simon and Schuster, 978-0857070715, £6.99 pbk
Scottish Children’s Book Awards
Bookbug Readers category (3-7 years) The Day Louis Got Eaten John Fardell Andersen Press, 978-1849393874, £5.99 pbk
Younger Readers Category (8-11 Years) The World of Norm: May Contain Nuts, Jonathan Meres, Orchard Books, 978-1408313039, £5.99 pbk
Older Readers Category (12-16 Years) The 13th Horseman Barry Hutchinson HarperCollins, 978-0007440894, £6.99 pbk
Waterstones Childrens Book Prize
Picture Book category: Lunchtime Rebecca Cobb, Macmillan, 978-0230749535, £6.99 pbk
Best Fiction for 5-12s: Wonder R. J. Palacio, Random House Children’s Books, 978-0552565974, £6.99 pbk
Best Book for Teens and Overall Winner: Ketchup Clouds Annabel Pitcher, Orion, 978-1780620305, £9.99 hbk
