First time author wins the Costa Children’s Book Award

Jason Wallace has won the Costa Children’s Book Award with his debut novel Out of Shadows (Andersen Press). The judges, author Tim Bowler, bookseller and author Tamara Macfarlane, and broadcaster Lorraine Kelly, described the book as ‘a stunning debut novel without a false note. Accomplished and powerful, it changes the way you think.’

Jason Wallace was born in Cheltenham in 1969, and moved to London after his parents split up. Aged 12, his life was turned upside down when his mother remarried and the family emigrated to Zimbabwe. It is his experiences of growing up in a tough boarding school during the aftermath of the war for independence that forms the foundation of Out of Shadows.

Read the Books for Keeps exclusive interview with Jason Wallace in this issue.

The other books on the shortlist were:

Flyaway by Lucy Christoper – read the BfK review
Annexed by Sharon Dogar – read the BfK review
Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud – read the BfK review

Out of the Shadows will now be judged alongside the other four Costa Book Awards category winners for the title of Costa Book of the Year.