Arthur is the Children’s Choice

Pat Thomson reports on the winner of this year’s Children’s Book Award

Arthur sits in the pet shop window, hoping for a comfortable home but everyone prefers the other animals. With more optimism than skill he tries to persuade the customers that he, too, is a rabbit, a snake, even a fish.

Although he positively exhausts himself, his efforts as an actor are unsuccessful – until someone comes in and asks for ‘that extraordinary dog who performs all sorts of tricks’. So runs the storyline of Arthur, a picture book by two young Australians, Amanda Graham, the writer, and Donna Gynell, the illustrator, both relatively new to children’s books.

Children, particularly those of about 7-11, but also across a wide age range, were both amused and sympathetic. They found Arthur practising at being all the other animals irresistibly funny but they knew all about wanting to be popular, about the need to be chosen and responded accordingly when Arthur finally finds a home. The comedy is slapstick, the theme is simple but the content goes deeper than a casual reader might imagine.

Arthur is published by Spindlewood, 0 907349 06 4, £4.95

The Children’s Book Award is a national award, judged by children and given annually by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups. A book list, Pick of the Year, is produced which reviews the winner and the ‘Top Ten’ runners-up, and recommends a further 30 books which were well received during the Award testing programme. The Federation makes this available as a reliable list of books which they know children will enjoy.

For a full-colour award poster and Pick of the Year (£I .00 post free) write to Maggie Coiling. 8 Dymoke Road. Hornchurch, Essex RM11 IAA. (Please make cheques payable to Federation of Children’s Book Groups.)

The ‘Top Ten’ runners-up are:

Two by Two
Betty Youngs, Bodley Head, 0 370 30555 8, £5.25
The Noah’s Ark text is elegant and rhythmical but it was the embroidered illustrations which captured the children. Every texture and shade is successful and the pages were stroked as well as read. (2+)

One Bear All Alone
Caroline Bucknall, Macmillan, 0 333 39819 X, £4.95
‘One bear all alone sitting by the telephone.’ A rhyming picture book which invites the reader to count some very appealing bears. Instantly successful with the younger readers and listeners. (3+)

The Very Busy Spider
Eric Carle, Hamish Hamilton, 0 241 11430 6, £7.95
Bold, clear pictures of familiar animals, plus an ever growing spider’s web which is raised on the page. The story was followed with fingers as well as eyes, and proved very absorbing. (4+)

Lost and Found
Jan Mogensen, Hamish Hamilton, 0 241 11431 4, £5.50
A loved toy is lost and there is an anxious wait in the lost property office with corresponding relief when the toy is reclaimed. A mini-drama in large, sympathetic pictures and soft colours. (5+)

Hairy Maclary Scattercat
Lynley Dodd, Spindlewood, 0 907349 46 3, £4. 25
The return of Scarface Claw! Rhyming picture book in which Hairy Maclary teases all the local cats until he meets the ‘toughest Tom in town’. A great favourite. (4+)

Saddlebottom
Dick King-Smith, Gollancz, 0 575 03715 6, £5.50
Saddlebottom, who should have been a Saddleback, is rejected by his well-bred family but finally triumphs in a Royal day of glory at the head of the Regiment. An invaluable author for this age group who gives us good fun in a real story. (6+)

Gaffer Samson’s Luck
Jill Paton Walsh, Viking Kestrel, 0 670 80122 4, £6.50
James moves to a Fenland village where the local children are hostile but he makes friends with old Gaffer Samson and gets into difficulties looking for the old man’s ‘luck’. A good, modern story, eventful and full of detail. (9+)

Trouble Half-Way
Jan Mark, Viking Kestrel, 0 670 80188 7, £5.95
Amy is rather shocked by her new step-father’s easy-going attitude to life but the journey they take together gives her confidence and starts her on the road to independence. Both funny and serious. (10+)

Janey
Bernard Ashley, Julia MacRae, 0 86203 208 3, £6.95
Janey, a thief’s assistant from a deprived background, makes friends with the elderly Nora and the power of that friendship changes her life. The narrative grips from the beginning. (11+)

Drift
William Mayne, Cape, 0 224 02244 X, £6.95
Rafe, lost in the North American forest, only survives through the help he receives from some Indian women. He learns and understands much but the distance between them remains. A fascinating and vivid book, not easily forgotten. (12+)•