Gideon the Cutpurse - Award News

Linda Buckley Archer's wonderful novel Gideon the Cutpurse has been shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award, which celebrates the most promising book by a first-time UK children's novelist, and highlights the importance of the editor in nurturing new authors. Gideon was edited by Venetia Gosling at Simon and Schuster.

Also on this year's shortlist of seven are A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd, edited by David Fickling, and Beast by Ally Kennen, edited by Marion Lloyd; the judges include Frances Hardinge, who won the award last year for Fly By Night.

The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony on Thursday, 28th June in London.

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The sequel to Gideon, The Tar Man is out soon. I'll be interviewing Linda for The Edge of the Forest later in the year. And you can visit the trilogy's website here.

Children's Book Award News - Costa Winner Announced

You may remember that last week I mentioned the Costa Book Award for Best Children's Book was announced today.

And the winner is:

Set In Stone by Linda Newbery. Here's the publisher's synopsis:

When Samuel Godwin, a young and naive art tutor, accepts a job with the Farrow family at their majestic home, little does he expect to come across such a web of secrets and lies. His two tutees are as different as chalk and cheese - the beautiful younger sister Marianne, full of flightiness and nervous imagination, and Juliana, oddly sensible and controlled. Assisted by their elusive governess, Charlotte Agnew, Samuel begins to uncover slowly why Marianne is so emotionally fragile. But his discoveries lead to revenge and betrayal - and lives all around are turned upside down as life and death combat each other for supremacy. Linda Newbery has written a novel in diary style, combining different voices and a different century with her usual brilliance and ease. These are characters full of the same passions as our own today, while living in a less familiar and fascinating time.

I think I'll have to add this to the "Must see if the library has it" list !

Children's Book Award News

No, not the Cybils, not yet !

Formerly known as the Whitbread Children's Book Award, the Costa Children's Book Award shortlist has been announced as follows:

Clay - David Almond
The Judges say: "Clay is a powerful, moving and unusual story which works on every level. It is beautifully and plainly written, and comes straight from the heart."

The Diamond of Drury Lane - Julia Golding
Winner of Nestle Children's Award 2006. Cat Royal, the feisty little orphan-girl brought up in a theatre, is a brilliant narrator of this terrific action-packed adventure. There’s intrigue, politics, class warfare, and a lot of excitement in this novel.

Just In Case - Meg Rosoff
The Judges say: "A razor-sharp portrait of a teenage boy and his relationship with his image, his inner life and fate itself."

Set In Stone - Linda Newbery
Set at the end of the 19th century, Linda Newbery has cleverly carved out an incredible mystery that’s full of clever twists and entwined with drama.

The winner will be announced on January 10.

Another children's book award that will be announced this month, is The Marsh Award for Children’s Literature in Translation, which in 1996 was designed to spotlight the high quality and diversity of translated fiction for young readers and is presented biennially. Since its inception, there has been a steady increase in the number of children’s books translated into English and published in Britain. This year's submissions saw books translated from Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Portuguese and Swedish. The shortlist is as follows:

The Book of Everything by Guus Kuijer translated from Dutch by John Nieuwenhuizen, Young Picador (Pan Macmillan, 2006), First published in Holland in 2005. (I read this book last year - it's brilliant !)

A Bridge to the Stars by Henning Mankell translated from Swedish by Laurie Thompson, (Andersen Press, 2005,), First published in Sweden in 1990.

Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke translated from German by Anthea Bell, (The Chicken House, 2004), First published in Germany in 2000. (I've read this one too, and whilst it's not my favourite of Funke's books, I do like it.)

The Flowing Queen by Kai Meyer translated from German by Anthea Bell, (Egmont, 2005), First published in Germany in 2001.

Just Like Tomorrow by Faiza Guène translated from French by Sarah Adams, (Random House, 2006), First published in France in 2004

Mimus by Lilli Thal translated from German by John Brownjohn, (Allen & Unwin, 2005), First published in Germany in 2003.

The winner will be announced at a ceremony at The Arts Club on 23rd January 2007. Wendy Cooling will present the award and a prize of £1000 to the translator of the winning book.