Booktrust Teenage Prize 2010
Established in 2003, the Booktrust Teenage Prize is a national book prize that recognises and celebrates the best in contemporary writing for teenagers.
As you will be aware, the last few months have been particularly challenging for Booktrust. Our new funding settlement with the Department for Education has allowed us to protect the universal offer of the national bookgifting programmes, but it has nonetheless forced us to undertake a thorough review of all of the prizes and projects in the Booktrust portfolio.
As a result of this review, we have taken the difficult decision not to run the Booktrust Teenage Prize in Autumn 2011. This Prize is incredibly important, highlighting and celebrating the best books for teens, as well as being very dear to Booktrust. We have not taken this decision lightly and we strongly intend to bring back the Prize with a bang in the very near future
Do contact Claire Shanahan, the Prizes and Awards Manager, if you have any questions.
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Unhooking the Moon
QuercusBob has a stubborn younger sister with disturbing fits and upsetting premonitions. She foretells her best friend's murder, their dog's disappearance and her father's death. Bob calls her the Rat.
Unhooking the Moon
Gregory Hughes
Winner, Booktrust Teenage Prize 2010
Bob has a stubborn younger sister with disturbing fits and upsetting premonitions. She foretells her best friend's murder, their dog's disappearance and her father's death. Bob calls her the Rat.
When their father dies, the children run away to New York in search of drug-dealing Uncle Jerome. Otherwise it's the orphanage.
Sleeping rough in Central Park, they are befriended by a hustler, a cigar smuggler, a tramp and the celebrity rapper, Iceman. Caught by the cops, the Rat is taken to a children's home, run by paedophiles. The dramatic rescue has devastating consequences for everyone.
This captivating adventure touches on family love, loyalty, grief, bravery, violence and psychiatric illness. Its bittersweet conclusion leaves tears in the eyes.
Publisher: Quercus
Gregory Hughes
Gregory had a colourful childhood. He was expelled from his Catholic School in Liverpool and sent to a wayward home for boys near Southport before being sent to a detention centre. He then lived in the US working as a removal man and cleaning the windows of New York skyscrapers and had to sleep rough on numerous occasions.
When he returned to England he took his GCSEs and began writing, which he continued in New York where he attended creative writing classes. His debut novel, Unhooking the Moon, was written in eight months whilst living in Iceland. Gregory lives in Norway and is currently in Vancouver working on a series of scripts.
Gregory Hughes is a first-time writer who had an eventful childhood himself. Expelled from a Liverpool Jesuit school as a young teenager, he found himself in a home for boys and then in a detention centre. He has continued to lead a colourful life, working as a removal man, sleeping rough in Times Square, taking his GCSEs in his 20s and now working as a deep-sea diver, which he says inspires his creativity. The novel was written whilst Gregory was living in Iceland and sleeping on the floor of a room so small that he could touch both ends of the room while standing in the middle.
About the shortlist
Global adventures abounded in the 2010 shortlist, which took in ancient Greece, a disease-ridden London, Malaga, New York, the Arctic Circle and post- independence Zimbabwe as teenage protagonists struggle in search of their identity, and sometimes for their very survival.
A mother and daughter-writing partnership, Young James Bond author, previous Booktrust Teenage Prize winner, deep-sea diver, descendant of an international cricketer, and former editor of Ellegirl UK were all shortlisted.
Judges
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Barbara BandBarbara Band is a Chartered librarian who has worked in a wide variety of secondary schools for over 20 years. Prior to this, she worked as a project management consultant for both the defence and telecommunications industries. Barbara runs several individual reading groups for all ages and abilities that focus on both National and local awards.
Barbara is an active member of both the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (Cilip) and the School Library Association (SLA). She has given talks and workshops on a range of library-related topics from creating development plans through to reading schemes. She recently reached the School Librarian of the Year 2009 Honour’s List. -
Tony BradmanTony Bradman has been involved in the world of children’s books as a writer, reviewer and editor for 30 years. He has published many children’s books for all ages, and edited many anthologies of short stories and poetry. Tony has been active in writers’ organisations, having been chair of the Childrens’ Writers and Illustrators Group at The Society of Authors, and currently sits on the board of the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society as vice-chair. He is also chair of Trustees for The Siobhan Dowd Trust – Tony published the first short story by award-winning writer Siobhan Dowd in one of his anthologies (Skin Deep), and the Trust was set up after Siobhan’s untimely death to give children from underprivileged backgrounds the chance to enjoy reading. Tony has three children and two grandchildren, and lives in London with his wife.
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Barbara EllenBefore joining The Observer in1996 Barbara worked as a music journalist for Loaded and at The Mail on Sunday. She is a regular columnist for The Guardian and The Observer.
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Claudia FreemantleClaudia is 16-year-old and goes to Hanley Castle High School in Worcestershire. Obviously, she loves to read but she is also a keen clarinettist, and sings in the Worcester Girls’ Cathedral Choir. She gets involved with drama and performances as often as she can within school and also in local amateur productions. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience last year, and is delighted to have been offered another chance to participate in the judging process for the Booktrust Teenage Prize again.
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Mary HoffmanMary Hoffman is the bestselling author of over 90 books, mainly for children and teenagers. Her titles cater for a wide range of readers, through picture books like Amazing Grace and its sequels to the successful teenage fantasy sequence, Stravaganza, and prize winning historical novels like The Falconer's Knot and Troubadour.
Mary is also a journalist, reviewing for The Guardian and on her Book Maven blog. She lives in Oxfordshire with her husband and has three grown-up daughters, all working in the Arts.
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