Mitch Johnson and editors Rebecca Hill and Becky Walker of Usborne have won the 2018 Branford Boase Award for Kick.

Last year’s winner, M.G. Leonard, a judge for the 2018 award said: “Kick is a skillfully written and perfectly paced. Mitch Johnston has produced a fantastically original debut that champions hope, dogged optimism in the face of adversity, and friendship. This book needs to be on the bookshelf of every school library, not just because it will encourage empathy, but because it’s a great book. Mitch Johnston is definitely one to watch.”

Johnson the winning author said: “The Branford Boase Award has recognized many of my favourite authors over the years, and so to receive the award myself is a wonderfully surreal experience. Kick is a novel that I came close to abandoning on several occasions, but the thought that kept me going was that perhaps one day my book would get published, and perhaps if it got published someone might read it, and perhaps if someone read it they might question the way things are made. The plight of garment workers is a global issue affecting millions of people, and yet somehow it manages to remain largely out of sight. My hope is that Kick will make this problem more visible, and winning the Branford Boase will undoubtedly encourage more readers to find out about the subject for themselves, and for this I am extremely grateful.

I am very fortunate that Kick found two brilliant editors, Rebecca Hill and Becky Walker, who understood exactly what I was trying to achieve and shared my passion for telling Budi’s story. Their insight, expertise, and sensitivity improved Kick immeasurably, and I am thrilled that the Branford Boase acknowledges the crucial role they played in making this book a success.”

via Branford Boase Award Winners.

Inexplicably and highly annoyingly I missed being at this award, one of the most pleasurable to attend, owing to it disappearing from my online calendar. 
Can recommend checking the set of photos taken at the event by its regular photographer Paul Carter:
http://www.branfordboaseaward.org.uk/BBA_Current/bbapartyphotos.html

Geraldine McCaughrean, who (30 years after winning the award for the first time) was announced the winner of this year’s Carnegie Medal for her novel Where The World Ends at an event earlier today at the British Library, used her acceptance speech to point out the following irony:

At a time when all subject matter and all manner of language is considered fine in Young Adult novels there has been a much different approach from publishers to books for younger readers. Writers are being encouraged to make language accessible, to refrain from using vocabulary that readers might not already be familiar with….

“We master words by meeting them not avoiding them,” McCaughrean pointedly asserted.

I recommend reading Alison Flood’s excellent resume of the award ceremony, as it includes extensive quotation from McCaughrean’s comments:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/18/carnegie-medal-winner-slams-publishers-easy-reading-geraldine-mccaughrean

The Greenaway Medal was won by Canadian illustrator Sydney Smith for Town Is By The Sea.

Themes of empowering children to stand up for their beliefs and encouraging them to shape the world around them are celebrated in both the Amnesty CILIP Honour commendations. From the CILIP Carnegie Medal shortlist, the Honour went to American Angie Thomas for The Hate U Give (Walker Books). The Amnesty CILIP Honour from the Kate Greenaway Medal shortlist went to British artist and former Medal winner (Black Dog, 2013) Levi Pinfold for his black and white illustrations in The Song from Somewhere Else by A.F. Harrold (Bloomsbury).

Jake Hope, this year’s YLG chair, who already has a sizeable collection of coloured DMs, wore some noticeably brand new Docs for the occasion:

Here are some photos from the event:

Another award for The Hate U Give

The 2018 Children’s & Teen Choice Book Awards winners are:

• K–2nd Grade Book of the Year: Poor Louie, written and illustrated by Tony Fucile (Candlewick Press)
• 3rd–4th Grade Book of the Year: 50 Wacky Things Animals Do by Tricia Martineau Wagner, illustrated by Carles Ballesteros (Quarto/Walter Foster Jr.)
• 5th–6th Grade Book of the Year: The Losers Club by Andrew Clements (Random House Books for Young Readers)
• Teen Book of the Year: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray)

via 2018 Children’s & Teen Choice Book Award Winners Announced at BookExpo | American Booksellers Association.

Winner of the YA Book Prize 2018

Will Hill was announced the winner of the 2018 YA Book Prize at an event at the Hay Festival this afternoon. The presentation was broadcast in a live stream on Facebook.

Waterstones

SaveSave

Oscar’s Book Prize is an annual prize for the best under-fives book of the year.It is awarded in memory of Oscar Ashton and in partnership with Amazon, the Evening Standard and the National Literacy Trust.

 

It has taken author and former school teacher John Dougherty more than 20 years to get his story about a cute pig who disappears up a little girl’s nose published. But thanks to the combination of his tenacity — he never stopped submitting the book to different publishers — and Laura Hughes’s engagingly scatty illustrations, There’s a Pig Up My Nose has won this year’s Oscar’s Book Prize, set up in 2012 to celebrate the best in pre-school literature. Princess Eugenie, whose sister Princess Beatrice is patron of the annual prize, presented the pair with a £5,000 cheque at the ceremony at St James’s Palace on Monday night. 

via And the winner of the 2018 Oscar’s Book Prize is … | London Evening Standard.

also see main Prize Website: http://www.oscarsbookprize.co.uk/news

Children’s book illustrator Axel Scheffler, best known for his work on Julia Donaldson’s books including The Gruffalo series, was named illustrator of the year.

It is the first time that an illustrator of the year award has been given out at the event, also known as the Nibbies.

Pullman was named author of the year – another new award – to recognise his “outstanding commercial success alongside a genuine contribution to the general health of the book world”, organisers said.

Accepting the award, Pullman said he “couldn’t be more happy with way” La Belle Sauvage – the long-awaited addition to his Dark Materials trilogy – had been received.

Joint winners of Children’s Book of the Year were:
The Lost Words by Robert Macfarlane, illustrated by Jackie Morris (Penguin Random House Children’s)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Walker Books)

Bloomsbury Children’s Books was named Children’s Publisher of the Year. 

Publicity Campaign of the Year was won by Rosi Crawley and Emma Draude of ED Public Relations for The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (Walker). 

The Book Nook in Hove was awarded Children’s Bookseller of the Year.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-44106334