Tyger wins Children's Book Of The Year at the British Book Awards!

Incredible news - my new book Tyger has just won the Children's Fiction Book Of The Year at the British Book Awards!  

Congratulations to TYGER by @whatSFSaid, illustrated by @DaveMcKean, winner of Book of the Year: Children's Fiction (supported by @theweekjunior)! All the judges agreed that the book already "felt like a classic" @DFB_storyhouse #BritishBookAwards #Nibbies pic.twitter.com/3wbPfyOhXT

— The Bookseller (@thebookseller) May 15, 2023

You can read all about it in this wonderful piece on The Bookseller site.

And here's a video of the whole evening - you can see me receiving the award from Davina McCall from around 1:33!

Tyger is Foyles Children's Book of the Year!

 Amazing news – Tyger is the Foyles Children's Book of the Year!!!

This is an absolutely incredible thing for me.  When I was a child, my grandfather would sometimes take me to Foyles on Charing Cross Road as a treat.  It was his favourite bookshop, and it became mine, too.  It's still where I go when I want to remember why I love books and bookshops, so this award means the world to me!  

Dave McKean and I spent an amazing evening in Foyles Charing Cross Road.  We talked to lots of customers and staff, and signed lots of books.  

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone at Foyles for an evening I will never forget, and for making Tyger their children's book of the year!  And if you would like to order one those signed copies – with a free exclusive art print – just click on this link or the pictures below!

Phoenix Wins Haringey Children's Book Of The Year!

Amazing news: Phoenix has won the Haringey Children's Book Of The Year Award!

This is a fantastic book prize organised by brilliant school librarians and voted for by young readers in schools all over Haringey, North London.  I was honoured when Phoenix was included on an incredibly strong shortlist with books by great writers like Shirley Hughes, Philip Womack, Polly Ho-Yen and Katherine Rundell.

Some stunning Phoenix-inspired artwork then appeared in the window of local bookshop, Pickled Pepper Books, created by some of the students who had read it for the prize!

The day itself was amazing.  It was hosted by Heartlands High School, whose fantastic librarian Helen Swinyard organised the awards.  First I did a creative writing workshop with Year 7s from Highgate Wood School, sponsored by local arts organisation Collage Arts.  The Year 7s produced some seriously brilliant work, like this short story; you can read more in this wonderful blog on their school website.

After the creative writing workshops, Philip Womack, Polly Ho-Yen and myself did a Q&A session with students from all the schools involved, and were joined on stage by local MP Catherine West.  I was particularly delighted to see some students there from Fortismere School, where I am Patron Of Reading, accompanied by their brilliant librarian Gillian Ward.

Then it was announced that Phoenix had won, and I was presented with the award by last year's winner, Gill Lewis!

You can see the moment itself in this video clip, posted by North Haringey School!  It was amazing to see all the enthusiasm for books out there.  It really meant a lot for me, especially because Phoenix was largely written in Haringey Libraries.  So a huge thank you to everyone involved – it took me seven years to write Phoenix, but moments like this make all the hard work worthwhile!

Photos from Jordan Kouame Hart of Collage Arts

Phoenix selected for the IBBY Honour List!

I'm amazed and delighted to announce that Phoenix has been selected for the 2016 IBBY Honour List!

IBBY is a fantastic international children's literature organisation.  It brings together writers, illustrators, publishers, academics, librarians, teachers, literacy workers, booksellers and parents from over 70 countries around the world – from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.  And every two years, IBBY's Honour List selects outstanding recent books from each of its member countries.

Previous UK Honour List books include Frank Cottrell-Boyce's The Unforgotten Coat, Marcus Sedgwick's Revolver, Linda Newberry's The Sandfather, and Philip Reeve's Here Lies Arthur.  It's incredible to see Phoenix in that kind of company, because those books show how dedicated IBBY is to supporting the very best writing for young people.

I love the fact that IBBY's work aims to develop international understanding through children's books.  That's a goal that means a lot to me personally, so I am particularly honoured that the IBBY UK Committee said this about Phoenix:

Phoenix skilfully integrates comments about our contemporary world - on war and peace, prejudice, borders and barriers to migration, political and moral questions - into a fast-paced and exciting science fiction narrative.

I'd like to say a massive thank you to everyone at IBBY.  Phoenix took me seven long, hard years to write – but at a moment like this, all that work feels totally worthwhile!

And here's a link to a piece I wrote for the Guardian all about IBBY, and how children's books can help to build a better world!

Phoenix wins the Warwickshire Secondary Schools Book Awards!

I was absolutely thrilled when Phoenix was short-listed for the Warwickshire Secondary Book Awards!

These awards are voted for by readers around the county.  Previous winners include Michelle Paver's Wolf Brother, Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson, and Patrick Ness's A Monster Calls.  So it was a huge honour to see Phoenix short-listed by the brilliant librarians of the Warwickshire Schools' Library Service!

There were some fantastic authors and books on this year's short-list.  In the centre of the picture below is the great Berlie Doherty, who's won the Carnegie Medal twice with classics such as Dear Nobody.  On the right is Hilton Pashley, whose book Gabriel's Clock sounds like one of the most exciting debuts of recent years.  Unable to join us on the day, but definitely very popular with readers, were the fabulous Jonathan Stroud, Phil Earle and Tania Unsworth.

The ceremony was brilliantly organised by Stella Thebridge and Hannah Thomson.  We saw some fantastic presentations about the shortlisted books by Warwickshire Secondary students.  Here's the presentation on Phoenix:

And we saw some terrific art that the students had made, inspired by the books.  Here's a superb illustration of Frollix, complete with Axxa horns and hooves and flaming eyes!

It's a very moving thing for an author to see readers' responses to their work, especially when those responses are so positive!  I don't think I've ever seen a more brilliant buzz around books than at this ceremony.  It felt amazing to be there, part of a wonderful celebration of reading.  So I got very emotional when it was announced that Phoenix had won the Award.

I'd like to say a very big thank you to everyone who took part in the awards, not just on the day, but throughout the whole process.  And I'd like to say an extra-big thank you to Warwickshire SLS for a truly unforgettable day, and for championing and celebrating books so brilliantly!

The weRead Book Award

I'm absolutely thrilled that Phoenix has been shortlisted for the weRead Book Award! This is an unusual award because it's decided by young readers. I think that's a brilliant idea, and I'd like to ask all my readers to consider getting involved with it. You can do this by writing a review of one or more of the books on the shortlist – as many as you like.

I find it strange that most book prizes for young readers are decided not by actual readers, but by adult judges. I feel this is unfair. Whenever I visit schools and meet readers, I'm always inspired by their passion for books, their enthusiasm for reading, and their sheer intelligence. I've had amazing conversations with young readers up and down the country, and I think they have so much to say that normally never gets heard.

That's why I'm so proud that Varjak Paw won the Smarties Prize and The Outlaw Varjak Paw won the Blue Peter Book Of The Year: because both of those were voted for by young readers. And that means more than you can imagine.

The shortlist for the weRead Book Award is amazingly strong. As well as Phoenix, there are books by great authors like Malorie Blackman, Anthony Horowitz, Jonathan Stroud, Elizabeth Wein and Matthew Crow. There's bound to be at least one book on the list that you enjoy! So if you'd like to take part and make your voice heard – the deadline for sending reviews is June 20th 2014, and here's a link to the page explaining how to do it. 

Libraries & Librarians, Carnegies & Greenaways...

I'm a little stunned today, because I just found out that Phoenix has been nominated for both the CILIP Carnegie Medal for outstanding children's books, and the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration.

This is huge to me.  The Carnegie and Greenaway Medals are some of the biggest awards a book can be nominated for – but more importantly, they're nominated by librarians, and librarians are among the most important people in my world.  Because I write in libraries.  I love libraries.  Phoenix would literally not exist without them.

You see, I'm not disciplined enough to work at home.  I waste whole days looking at the internet, having baths, etc.  But in a library, I don't mess around; I get down to work.  It's quiet, and everyone else is working, so I feel it's only right that I should too.

I can't claim that libraries  shaped my childhood.  My family was a migrant one; we came to Britain when I was two years old, and older members of my family never lost the sense that some things out there were "for the British, not for us".  Among these were the NHS and public libraries; so sadly, we never used them.

Andrew Carnegie

Instead, I discovered libraries as an adult who was finding it impossible to work at home, and losing my way as a result.  Libraries saved me.  They gave me a quiet space to work in, with a nice big desk and lots of handy research material – and crucially, opening hours.  Because once you decide that you work in a library, you can't put your work off until midnight; the library isn't open at midnight.  You've got to get it done during the day.  That really helps keep you sane and disciplined when you're writing something that takes years.

I don't even talk to anyone when I go to the library.  I just show up, do my work, and go home.  I'm just another public library user, and I love that. 

Kate Greenaway

The most familiar faces for me are the librarians.  They're unsung heroes, in our culture – even more so in recent years, with all the cuts – but I see what they do, day in, day out.  They are brilliant.  Absolutely brilliant.  They're the ones who create this amazing space where reading is valued, where books are the most important things in the world.  Can you imagine what that means to someone whose whole life is focused on writing books?  Librarians are total stars, as far as I'm concerned, and without them my work would never get done.

So this is a massive thank you to all the libraries I've written in, to all the librarians who created that space – and to whoever noticed Phoenix, and nominated it for these awards.  It means more to me than you can possibly imagine.