Illustrated Books Shortlist
Bear Shaped by Dawn Coulter-Cruttenden
Freedom, We Sing by Amyra Leon ill. Molly Mendoza
The Grumpy Fairies by Bethan Stevens
Tir na n-Og Children’s Book Awards 2020 shortlists announced
English-language Shortlist
• The Secret Dragon by Ed Clarke (Puffin 2019)
• Max Kowalski Didn’t Mean It by Susie Day (Puffin 2019)
• Storm Hound by Claire Fayers (Macmillan Children’s Books 2019)
• Where Magic Hides by Cat Weatherill (Gomer 2019)
Welsh-language Shortlist – Primary
• Y Ddinas Uchel (The High City) by Huw Aaron (Atebol 2019)
• Genod Gwych a Merched Medrus (Great Girls and Skilled Women) by Medi Jones-Jackson (Y Lolfa 2019)
• Pobol Drws Nesaf (The People Next Door) by Manon Steffan Ros and Jac Jones (Y Lolfa 2019)
Welsh-language Shortlist – Secondary
• Byw yn fy Nghroen (Living in my Skin) edited by Sioned Erin Hughes (Y Lolfa 2019)
• Tom by Cynan Llwyd (Y Lolfa 2019)
• Madi by Dewi Wyn Williams (Atebol 2019)
2019 Klaus Flugge Prize Winner
Jessica Love has won the 2019 Klaus Flugge Prize for the most exciting and promising newcomer to children’s picture book illustration.
She won for Julian is a Mermaid published by Walker Books.
The book tells a joyful, positive story that adroitly questions gender stereotype. Tt has been described as ‘barrier- breaking’ and was also shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal.
Judge and former Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne says: “Julian is a Mermaid is an astonishingly beautiful book. It’s amazing to realise this is Jessica Love’s first attempt. She has quickly realised how picture books work – the understated words fit so brilliantly with the stunning illustrations, never getting in the way, never trying to do the same job. It’s a perfect picture book.”
There had to be a banana in the room 🙂
Fellow judge Farrah Serroukh, of CLPE adds: “The illustrations say things that it would be difficult for words alone to express. The layers of meaning that can be inferred through each spread are rich, sophisticated and plentiful. Quite simply, it is a stunningly beautiful, heart-warming debut.”
Julian is a Mermaid was partly inspired by a trans friend. “It got me curious about what sort of literature there was out there for families looking to have conversations with their children about identity, and how sometimes a person has to do a little more work to create the proper cover for their own book. I wanted to make something that didn’t feel didactic but that gave children a chance to experience this character’s inner life and identify with it. I wanted to give kids who identify with Julian a chance to see themselves reflected, but I also wanted kids who don’t identify with him a chance to get inside his experience and feel what it might be like.”
The Klaus Flugge Prize was founded to honour publisher Klaus Flugge, a supremely influential figure in picture books. Flugge set up Andersen Press in 1976 and has discovered and nurtured many of today’s most distinguished illustrators including David McKee, Tony Ross, Satoshi Kitamura, Ruth Brown and Susan Varley.
Prior to the presentation Klaus gave a splendid speech outlining his reasons for establishing the prize, mentioning its precursors, the Tom Maschler and Mother Goose awards. You can see clips from this speech on the ACHUKAbooks Instagram,
Chair of the judges, Julia Eccleshare said: “In the fourth year of the award, we had another extremely strong shortlist but the judges were unanimous in their decision to award the prize to Jessica Love. Julian is a Mermaid reminds us that picture books can make us understand the world differently and better; that they are for everyone. It is a ground-breaking book and has the qualities that Klaus Flugge has alwayschampioned in his own publishing.”
Love, who grew up in Southern California and studied printmaking and illustration at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and then went on to study acting, lives in New York and was unable to be in London to receive the award and £5,000 prize in person. In her absence she had recorded a spirited video message.
In the States the book won the American Library Association 2019 Stonewall Book Award, a prize first presented in 2010 and given annually to English-language children’s books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience.
The Klaus Flugge Prize can now be added to this impressive list:
2019—2020 Red Clover Award Nominee
2019 Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards finalist
2019 Ezra Jack Keats Award Honor, Illustrator
Rainbow List Choice – 2019
2019 Stonewall Book Award Winner
ALSC Notable Children’s Books – 2019
Capitol Choices: Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens – 2019
CCBC Choices 2019 Choice: Picture Books for Young Children
CSMCL Best Books – 2018
Publishers Weekly Best Books – 2018
CPL Best Books, Picture Books – 2018
Kirkus Best Books, Picture Books – 2018
NYPL Best Books for Kids – 2018
NPR’s Book Concierge – 2018
School Library Journal Best Books – 2018
BCCB Blue Ribbons – 2018
Horn Book Fanfare – 2018
Alongside Anthony Browne, the other Klaus Flugge judges this year were:
- Derek Brazell of the Association of Illustrators
- BillieJo Carlisle of Seven Stories bookshop
- Farrah Serroukh of CLPE
- 2018 Klaus Flugge Prize winner Kate MilnerJulia Eccleshare, director of the Children’s Programme at the Hay Festival, acted as Chair.
Rosoff’s Hard-Hitting Acceptance Speech
While accepting the internationally-recognised £430,000 Astrid Lindgren Memorial award for her writing in Sweden [yesterday] Meg Rosoff denounced the government’s exam-heavy approach to education, its dismissive attitude towards books, art and music and for the wide-scale closure of libraries under its watch.
David Cameron’s government’s approach to young people is tantamount to an “assault on childhood,” Rosoff declared.
Speaking at a ceremony in Stockholm, she said: “I have met too many children who cut themselves with razors, starve themselves, who suffer depression and anxiety, who believe what the government tells them – that nothing is more important than exams. That art and music and books will not help them make money. That it is OK to close libraries and do away with librarians.
“It is no wonder that teachers in the UK are quitting in record numbers. It has become a joyless profession. Learning has become joyless as well, and students are not able to quit. In Britain we are experiencing, quite literally, an assault on childhood.”
via Rosoff slams government for 'assault on childhood' | The Bookseller.
Shirley Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award
ACHUKA was privileged to be invited to Book Trust’s presentation of the first Lifetime Achievement to Shirley Hughes yesterday, at the Orangery in Holland Park.
Michael Morpurgo agave an introductory speech (written in the mistaken assurance that Shirley would be wearing a hat, as she generally does to literary parties) which had just the right mix of humour and veneration. There were lots of ‘great & good’ people in attendance, including the new Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell. It was a particular pleasure for me to see Clare Hall-Craggs acting as Shirley’s chaperone as well as meeting up with, for the first time in years, Ted Dewan, both longtime ACHUKA friends. After the formalities, a local Y2 class were treated to a special live drawing session in an outside marquee. Shirley drew Alfie running and two illustrations based on comical rhymes, all undertaken in a charming non-performance-like way, so that it was as if we were watching her draw in a home setting. I wish my three grownup children and both grandchildren, all of whom have loved her books, could have been there.
The cupcakes featuring Shirley Hughes book jackets (pictured below) were made for the occasion by Bluebell Kitchen.
Shirley drawing Alfie
Chris Riddell sketching as Shirley draws
Lifetime Achiever Talks to new Laureate
specially commissioned cup-cakes
Clare Hall-Craggs speaking with Shirley towards the end of the event
Camden Lock Books is first shop to win the Caboodle award
Camden Lock Books was already set to be the subject of our next indie visit – we will be there tomorrow and our feature will appear here at the end of the week…
Camden Lock Books has won the inaugural Caboodle Bookshop of the Month award.
The prize has been set up by National Book Tokens – which runs Caboodle – to honour the store which has demonstrated the best use of the Caboodle scheme in that month.
Caboodle is a rewards programme which offers a direct marketing service for booksellers to reach their local customers, along with encouraging bookshops to sell national book tokens – and customers to buy them – via rewards when buying national book tokens.
Camden Lock Books is celebrating its 30th year in business and was selected as this month’s winner by judges after impressive book offerings. “The judges were impressed by the number and variety of offers Camden Lock books has added since Caboodle launched, in addition to a wide selection of events, price promotions, news and updates about the shop,” NBT said. The bookshop has run promotions on individual titles, regular three for two offers and advertising on non-book stock.
As part of the prize, the shop will receive a hamper of food and wine, and will be profiled to all 100,000 Caboodle members across email and social media.
Branford Boase Longlist
The Branford Boase Award longlist in full:
The longlist for the Branford Boase Award 2014 was announced earlier today. The Award is given annually to the author of an outstanding debut novel for children. Uniquely, it also honours the editor of the winning title and highlights the importance of the editor in nurturing new talent.
Of more than 60 books submitted for the award, 29 have made it onto the longlist. Anthem for Jackson Dawes by Celia Bryce, edited by Emma Matthewson (Bloomsbury)
Sorrowline by Niel Bushnell, edited by Charlie Sheppard (Andersen Press)
The Child’s Elephant by Rachel Campbell-Johnston edited by Bella Pearson and Natalie Doherty (David Fickling Books)
Frost Hollow Hall by Emma Carroll, edited by Rebecca Lee (Faber)
Winter Damage by Natasha Carthew, edited by Rebecca McNally (Bloomsbury)
The Bone Dragon by Alexia Casale, edited by Rebecca Lee (Faber)
Tiger Thief by Michaela Clarke, edited by Kirsty Stansfield (Nosy Crow)
Darcy Burdock by Laura Dockrill, edited by Lauren Buckland (Random House)
After Eden by Helen Douglas, edited by Ele Fountain (Bloomsbury)
Fearsome Dreamer by Laure Eve, edited by Emily Thomas (Hot Key)
Infinite Sky by C.J. Flood, edited by Venetia Gosling (Simon and Schuster)
The Disappeared by C.J. Harper, edited by Jane Griffiths (Simon and Schuster)
Wild Boy by Rob Lloyd Jones edited by Mara Bergman (Walker)
The Mysterious Adventures of Clemency Wrigglesworth by Julia Lee, edited by Liz Cross and Helen Bray (OUP)
Red Ink by Julie Mayhew, edited by Emily Thomas (Hot Key)
The Oathbreaker’s Shadow by Amy McCulloch, edited by Lauren Buckland (Random House)
Ferryman by Claire McFall, edited by Helen Boyle (Templar)
Alex the Dog and the Unopenable Door by Montgomery Ross, edited by Rebecca Lee & Susila Baybars (Faber)
The River Singers by Tom Moorhouse, edited by Liz Cross and Claire Westwood (OUP)
East of the Sun, West of the Moon by Jackie Morris, edited by Janetta Otter-Barry (Frances Lincoln Children’s Books)
Poison Boy by Fletcher Moss, edited by Imogen Cooper and Barry Cunningham (Chicken House)
The Hanged Man Rises by Sarah Naughton, edited by Venetia Gosling (Simon and Schuster)
Gabriel’s Clock by Hilton Pashley, edited by Charlie Sheppard/Eloise Wilson (Andersen Press)
Acid by Emma Pass, edited by Ruth Knowles and Jessica Clarke (Random House)
Sun Catcher by Sheila Rance, edited by Fiona Kennedy (Orion)
The Quietness by Alison Rattle, edited by Sarah Odedina (Hot Key)
Geek Girl by Holly Smale, edited by Lizzie Clifford (HarperCollins)
My Friend the Enemy by Dan Smith, edited by Rachel Leyshon (Chicken House)
The Last Wild by Piers Torday, edited by Sarah Lambert (Quercus)
The Branford Boase Award judging panel has an extremely successful record in picking future best-selling and critically acclaimed authors. Previous shortlisted and winning writers include Marcus Sedgwick, Meg Rosoff, Philip Reeve, Cathy Cassidy, Kevin Brooks, William Nicholson, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Mal Peet and Bali Rai.
This year the judges are children’s books consultant and Bookstart founder Wendy Cooling; Tamara Macfarlane, author and owner of Tales on Moon Lane bookshop; Alec Williams, hugely experienced former librarian now a storyteller and consultant; and Dave Shelton, author of A Boy and A Bear in a Boat, winner of last year’s Branford Boase Award. The panel is chaired by Julia Eccleshare, children’s books editor of The Guardian.
The shortlist for the Award will be announced on 1st May 2014. The winner will be announced on Thursday 10th July at a ceremony in London.
Young Adult Author Awarded 2014 Menton Fellowship
Acclaimed young adult fiction writer Mandy Hager has been awarded the Katherine Mansfield Menton Fellowship for 2014. The Fellowship is one of New Zealands oldest and most esteemed literary awards. It provides a residency of at least six months in Menton, France and NZ$75,000. The support of the city of Menton enables a New Zealand author to work at the Villa Isola Bella, where Katherine Mansfield lived and wrote during the latter part of her life.
“This generous residency is every New Zealand writer’s dream, not only for the opportunity to travel to Menton and walk in the footsteps of many of our greatest writers, but also because it provides the gift of time and freedom from usual work commitments,’’ Hager says.
Mandy Hager has written eight novels, as well as short stories, scripts, and non-fiction resources for young people. She won the Esther Glen Award for Fiction for her novel Smashed and Best Young Adult Book in the 2010 NZ Post Book Awards for The Crossing, the first book in the popular ‘Blood of the Lamb’ trilogy. Her 2012 novel, The Nature of Ash, was a finalist in the 2013 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards in the Young Adult Fiction category, and won the LIANZA Young Adult Fiction award. Her latest book, Dear Vincent 2013, about painting, suicide and Vincent Van Gogh, was written with the support of the 2012 Beatson Fellowship.
LIANZA Children’s Book Award Winners 2013
2013 LIANZA Children’s Book Awards Winners
as reported by Graham Beattie
LIANZA Junior Fiction Award – Esther Glen Medal
For the most distinguished contribution to literature for children aged 0-15.Red Rocks by Rachael King, (Random House New Zealand)
LIANZA Young Adult Fiction Award
For the distinguished contribution to literature for children and young adults aged 13 years and above.The Nature of Ash by Mandy Hager, (Random House New Zealand)
LIANZA Illustration Award – Russell Clark Award
For the most distinguished illustrations in a children’s book.A Great Cake by Tina Matthews, (Walker Books Australia)
LIANZA Non Fiction Award – Elsie Locke Medal
For a work that is considered to be a distinguished contribution to non-fiction for young people.At the Beach: Explore & Discover the New Zealand Seashore by Ned Barraud and Gillian Candler, (Craig Potton Publishing)
LIANZA Librarians’ Choice Award 2013
Awarded to the most popular finalist across all awards, as judged by professional librarians of LIANZA.My Brother’s War by David Hill, (Penguin NZ)
Te Kura Pounamu (te reo Māori)
Awarded to the author of a work, written in Te Reo Māori, which makes a distinguished contribution to literature for children or young people.Ko Meru by Kyle Mewburn, translated by Ngaere Roberts, illustrated by Ali Teo and John O’Reilly (Scholastic)
Frances Lincoln – Diverse Voices
Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award 2013
This year, for the first time, each of the three shortlisted writers is eligible because of their own cultural origins as well as their stories.
The writers will celebrate at a ceremony at Seven Stories on 23rd May 2013, when the winner will be announced. The award will go to the best work of unpublished fiction for 8-to-12-year-olds by a writer, aged 18 years or over, who has not previously published a novel for children.
* One of a Kind by Jude (Najoud) Ensaff *
One of a Kind follows Raheema, a sixteen-year old living in Northern Iraq. When her parents unexpectedly flee the country, leaving her and her siblings with relatives, life as she knew it is thrown into turmoil. As she watches the country disintegrate, she plans her escape but is it too late? Her brother is arrested, her hometown and uncle’s house occupied and she is left to battle the chaos around her. Reluctantly, she is forced to place her trust in others but will they betray her or help her and her family?
Jude Ensaff has always enjoyed writing, since about the age of seven or eight. She remembers using her mum’s typewriter to create ‘masterpieces’ and then filing them away in a drawer, and telling some of her dad’s friends rather proudly when they asked her what she wanted to be, when she grew up – that she wanted to be ‘a writer’.
* Samosa Girl by Swapna Haddow *
Following a humiliating incident at a family wedding, thirteen-year-old Divya develops superpowers. She hides the secret of her new identity, choosing only to confide in her best friend and pledges to use her powers for good. Divya meets trouble in the form of classmate Sandeep, who thwarts Divya’s good actions, framing her for all his misdemeanours. He too has acquired superpowers but is persuaded by his older brother to use his powers to terrorize. Divya makes mistakes in her fight for justice and finds herself alienated from her family and best friend. Being a superhero isn’t as easy as she thought. With a lesson in humility and help from her best friend, Divya eventually leads the police to the thugs.
Londoner Swapna Haddow has been writing since she was young. Her first poem was published in her school newspaper at the age of twelve. It was about a cat. Her eclectic background, having lived all over London, studied Medicine at university, worked in retail, interned in several East London art galleries and worked for a drawing school, have amassed an Everest-sized mountain of ideas for stories and Swapna has spent the last three years working hard writing for children. She writes for young people under the age of twelve because they enjoy a similar sense of humour and a shared appreciation for bogeys, farts and maverick grandparents.
* You’re Not Proper by Tariq Mehmood *
14 year olds, Kiran and Shamshad live in a town seething with Islamophobia. Short skirt wearing Kiran lives with her white mother and beer guzzling Pakistani father, on the white side of town. Hijab wearing Shamshad lives on the Muslim side. For her, Kiran is not a proper Muslim, just a despicable half-cast, who left Islam. To her white friends, Kiran is not proper white. Written in first person, the narrative moves between each story.
There is a dark secret in their families – one hidden under Kiran’s mother’s floorboards, and in the stony silence of Shamshad’s house. Their fathers come from the same village in Pakistan, where the secret was born. When Kiran asks to be allowed to go to Pakistan, she unleashes a furious argument…
Tariq Mehmood entered the award because his three children are from diverse religious, cultural and religious backgrounds. Kashmiri, Pakistani, Tamil and English. Like many children in England, they have multiple identities. Tariq says: “I have children who are not white, who read a lot, but they themselves are fictionally invisible and where they do come into characters which maybe close to them, at best they are appendages to white characters or they might as well be white. In Diverse Voices, I saw the recognition of the importance of creating a new literary landscape that reflected the world around us, that is blooming with thousands of different flowers, in which children are its scents.”
via Frances Lincoln – Diverse Voices.
Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award was jointly founded by Frances Lincoln Ltd and Seven Stories – National Centre for Children’s Books in memory of Frances Lincoln (1945-2001). The award aims to encourage and promote diversity in children’s fiction.