Geraldine McCaughrean, who 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.

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

Photos pending….

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.

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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

CHILDREN’S FICTION

The Explorer – Katherine Rundell
Things a Bright Girl Can Do – Sally Nicholls
Letters from the Lighthouse – Emma Carroll
Sky Song – Abi Elphinstone
A Skinful of Shadows – Frances Hardinge
The 91-Storey Treehouse – Andy Griffiths & illustrated by Terry Denton
We Come Apart – Sarah Crossan & illustrated by Brian Conaghan
The 1000 Year Old Boy – Ross Welford
Nevermoor – Jessica Townsend
Release – Patrick Ness
A Spoonful of Murder – Robin Stevens
The Bolds on Holiday – Julian Clary & illustrated by David Roberts
Where the World Ends – Geraldine McCaughrean

CHILDREN’S PICTURE BOOK
 
Fantastically Great Women who Made History – Kate Pankhurst
Lots: The Diversity of Life on Earth– Nicola Davies & illustrated by Emily Sutton
You Choose in Space – Pippa Goodhart & illustrated by Nick Sharratt
Grandad’s Secret Giant – David Litchfield
Katinka’s Tail – Judith Kerr
The Squirrels Who Squabbled – Rachel Bright & illustrated by Jim Field
I Love You, Stick Insect – Chris Naylor-Ballesteros
The Everywhere Bear – Julia Donaldson & illustrated by Rebecca Cobb
The Grotlyn – Benji Davies
Kevin – Rob Biddulph
What the Ladybird Heard on Holiday – Julia Donaldson & illustrated by Lydia Monks
Superbat – Matt Carr

BA president Nic Bottomley and co-chair o f the judging panels told The Bookseller, “This award is unique, in that its shortlist is generated from the opinions of the nation’s independent booksellers – the daily curators of an immense breadth of fiction and non-fiction titles. When a customer walks into a bookshop and asks for a recommendation, they never know what might fall into their hands; it could be a memoir of multiple close scraps with death, a novel set in 18th century Bristol or anything else in between. For myself and the rest of the panel, judging the variety of titles on offer is going to be a challenge, but an absolute joy to be a part of.”

The IBW Book Award judging panels will be chaired by former BA President, Rosamund de la Hey and current BA President Nic Bottomley, and will include Joanna Cannon, author (The Trouble with Goats & Sheep, Three Things About Elsie); Debbie James, The Kibworth Bookshop; Sandy Mahal, UNESCO Nottingham City of Literature; Will Smith, Sam Read Booksellers; Yasmeen Ismail, author and illustrator (I’m A Girl!, Time for Bed, Fred); Wei Ming Kam, author (contributor to The Good Immigrant), blogger; Natasha Radford, Chicken & Frog Bookshop and Tony West, Alligator’s Mouth Bookshop.

The winners of each category will be announced on Friday 15th June, the day before IBW starts. 

The shortlist for the 2018 Branford Boase Award is 

• A Jigsaw of Fire and Stars by Yaba Badoe, edited by Fiona Kennedy (Head of Zeus: Zephyr)
• The Starman and Me by Sharon Cohen, edited by Sarah Lambert (Quercus Children’s Books)
• Fish Boy by Chloe Daykin, edited by Leah Thaxton (Faber)
• Knighthood for Beginners by Elys Dolan, edited by Clare Whitston and Elv Moody (Oxford)
• Kick by Mitch Johnson, edited by Rebecca Hill and Becky Walker (Usborne)
• Potter’s Boy by Tony Mitton, edited by Anthony Hinton (David Fickling Books)
• The City of Secret Rivers by Jacob Sager Weinstein, edited by Gill Evans (Walker Books)

The Branford Boase 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.

Now in its nineteenth year the Branford Boase Award is recognised as one of the most important awards in children’s books with a hugely impressive record in identifying authors with special talent at the start of their careers. 

This year’s judges are Urmi Merchant of children’s bookshop Pickled Pepper Books; Helen Swinyard, librarian at Heartlands High School and founder of the Haringey Children’s Book Award; author and reviewer Philip Womack; and M.G. (Maya) Leonard, author of Beetle Boy, winner of the 2017 Branford Boase Award. The panel is chaired by Julia Eccleshare, children’s director of the Hay Festival.