Blue Peter Book Awards 2013
Hundreds of children from schools across the country have chosen Tom Gates: Genius Ideas, Mostly by Liz Pichon as the winner of the Blue Peter Book Award for Best Story and Horrible Science: House of Horrors by Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles as the winner of the Best Book with Facts.
The winners were announced and received their trophies on a special World Book Day edition of Blue Peter, which broadcast live on Thursday 7 March.
The win for Liz Pichon’s Tom Gates series is another in a string of accolades for the author. In just two years since the first Tom Gates book was published, Pichon has been awarded the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, Red House Book Award and Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize as well as being one of the featured World Book Day authors. The series has sold over 100,000 copies and has been translated into over 20 languages. Winning the Blue Peter Book Award marks Liz as a major rising star in the children’s book world.
Horrible Science: House of Horrors helps young readers to discover gruesome facts about the hidden aspects of everyday living with cartoon illustrated fact-filled pages. There are over five million Horrible Science books in print, with author Nick Arnold working on the titles for more than 15 years with Scholastic.
The shortlist was selected by a panel of judges including How to Be a Woman author Caitlin Moran, How to Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell, librarian extraordinaire Jake Hope and Blue Peter editor Tim Levell. Over 300 young Blue Peter viewers from a selection of schools across the UK and Ireland then went on to vote for their favourites to determine the overall winners. Read about the experiences of the young Blue Peter viewers who took part in this year's judging
The enormously popular and influential Blue Peter Book Awards have been recognising and celebrating the best authors, the most creative illustrators and the greatest reads for children since 2000.
Best Story
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Winner
Tom Gates - Genius Ideas (Mostly)
ScholasticThe brilliant Tom Gates is back in this, the fourth installment of this award-winning series from Liz Pichon.
Tom Gates - Genius Ideas (Mostly)
Liz Pichon
Winner, Blue Peter Book Awards
The brilliant Tom Gates is back in this, the fourth installment of this award-winning series from Liz Pichon.
Publisher: Scholastic
Liz Pichon
Liz Pichon studied graphic design and has worked as an art director in the music industry. Her freelance design work has appeared on a range of products and she has written and illustrated a number of picture books. Liz's first book for 9+ readers, The Brilliant World of Tom Gates won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, The Best Book for Young Readers – Red House Book Award and the Best Fiction for 5-12 year olds category of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. Liz is married with three children and lives in Brighton.
http://www.lizpichon.co.uk/home.htm
Liz Pichon comments on her Blue Peter Best Story of the Year 2013 win:
Just being on such an amazing shortlist was fantastic enough – but winning is absolutely AMAZING! A HUGE thank you to everyone involved: the judges, Blue Peter and to all the children who took part and voted for Tom Gates.
About the shortlist
Shortlist
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The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas
Walker Books
The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas
David Almond
Shortlisted, Blue Peter Book Awards
Multi-award-winning author David Almond returns with this pleasingly eccentric story of a ordinary boy who embarks on an unusual adventure.
Publisher: Walker Books
Oliver JeffersOliver Jeffers
As a picture book creator Oliver Jeffers has been the recipient of some of children's books highest accolades, including the Nestle Gold Medal for Lost and Found and the Irish Picture Book of the Year for The Incredible Book Eating Boy. Other award-winning titles include The Way Back Home, which was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway medal. An animated film of Oliver's book Lost and Found won a BAFTA for Best Animation in 2009. Oliver was born in Belfast but now lives in New York City.
http://www.oliverjeffers.com/
David AlmondDavid Almond
David Almond is the highly acclaimed author of Skellig, The Savage, Clay, My Name Is Mina, My Dad's a Birdman, Slog's Dad and many other novels, stories and plays. His books are translated into almost forty languages and are widely adapted for stage and screen. His numerous awards include the Carnegie Medal, two Whitbread Children's Book Awards and Le Prix Sorcieres, and in 2010 he gained the Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international prize for children's authors. David lives with his family in Hexham, Northumberland.
http://www.davidalmond.com/ -
Hero on a Bicycle
Walker Books
Hero on a Bicycle
Shirley Hughes
Shortlisted, Blue Peter Book Awards
The first novel from much-loved author and illustrator Shirley Hughes is a thrilling and moving story about a boy and his bicycle, set against a dramatic background of war-torn Italy
Publisher: Walker Books
Shirley Hughes
Shirley Hughes has illustrated more than 200 children's books and is one of the best-loved writers for children, with beloved classics including the Alfie and Annie Rose stories, and Dogger. She has won the Kate Greenaway Medal twice and has been awarded the OBE for her distinguished service to children's literature. In 2007, Dogger was voted the UK's favourite Kate Greenaway Medal-winning book of all time. Hero on a Bicycle is her debut novel.
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Tom Gates - Genius Ideas (Mostly)
Scholastic
Tom Gates - Genius Ideas (Mostly)
Liz Pichon
Shortlisted, Blue Peter Book Awards
The brilliant Tom Gates is back in this, the fourth installment of this award-winning series from Liz Pichon.
Publisher: Scholastic
Liz Pichon
Liz Pichon studied graphic design and has worked as an art director in the music industry. Her freelance design work has appeared on a range of products and she has written and illustrated a number of picture books. Liz's first book for 9+ readers, The Brilliant World of Tom Gates won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, The Best Book for Young Readers – Red House Book Award and the Best Fiction for 5-12 year olds category of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize. Liz is married with three children and lives in Brighton.
http://www.lizpichon.co.uk/home.htm
Best Book With Facts
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Winner
Horrible Science: House of Horrors
ScholasticEnter the house of horrors and get up close with fleas, dust-mites, rats and germs in this entertaining book from the popular Horrible Science series.
Horrible Science: House of Horrors
Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles
Winner, Blue Peter Book Awards
Enter the house of horrors and get up close with fleas, dust-mites, rats and germs in this entertaining book from the popular Horrible Science series.
Publisher: Scholastic
Nick Arnold
Horrible Science author Nick Arnold has been writing books and stories since he was a lad. Even in those days his favourite subjects for stories were horrible goings-on - the more gruesome the better. So you see, he hasn’t changed a bit. When he’s not writing books, Nick is constantly taking his one-person show to bookshops, libraries and festivals. The show is everything you would expect from a Horrible Science book, packed with revolting experiments and gory descriptions.
Tony De Saulles
Tony De Saulles is the illustrator of the Horrible Science series. Tony trained as a graphic designer and worked in advertising and book designing before becoming an illustrator. Tony lives in Cheltenham and runs drawing workshops at schools, libraries and book festivals around the country.
http://www.tonydesaulles.co.uk
Author Nick Arnold comments on his Blue Peter Best Book with Facts of the Year 2013 win:
Winning this award is better than winning the lottery since I know that The House of Horrors has been judged against the very best children's books. This is an award for entire Horrible Science team and I thank them all. Right now I feel so out of this world I am in danger of ending up on another planet!
Illustrator Tony De Saulles:
Nick and I are absolutely thrilled to have won the Blue Peter Best Book with Facts prize for Horrible Science House of Horrors. We have been making Horrible Science books for seventeen years and it's brilliant to know that children still love them.
About the shortlist
Shortlist
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Horrible Science: House of Horrors
Scholastic
Horrible Science: House of Horrors
Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles
Shortlisted, Blue Peter Book Awards
Enter the house of horrors and get up close with fleas, dust-mites, rats and germs in this entertaining book from the popular Horrible Science series.
Publisher: Scholastic
Nick Arnold
Horrible Science author Nick Arnold has been writing books and stories since he was a lad. Even in those days his favourite subjects for stories were horrible goings-on - the more gruesome the better. So you see, he hasn’t changed a bit. When he’s not writing books, Nick is constantly taking his one-person show to bookshops, libraries and festivals. The show is everything you would expect from a Horrible Science book, packed with revolting experiments and gory descriptions.
Tony De Saulles
Tony De Saulles is the illustrator of the Horrible Science series. Tony trained as a graphic designer and worked in advertising and book designing before becoming an illustrator. Tony lives in Cheltenham and runs drawing workshops at schools, libraries and book festivals around the country.
http://www.tonydesaulles.co.uk -
Walter Tull's Scrapbook
Frances Lincoln
Walter Tull's Scrapbook
Michaela Morgan
Shortlisted, Blue Peter Book Awards
Discover the fascinating true story of footballer and World War I officer Walter Tull in this highly visual scrapbook.
Publisher: Frances Lincoln
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Fantastic Mr Dahl
Puffin
Fantastic Mr Dahl
Michael Rosen
Shortlisted, Blue Peter Book Awards
This new biography of Roald Dahl, written especially for children by former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen, has been much anticipated - it's been ten years in the making!
Publisher: Puffin
Quentin Blake
Children's Laureate 1999-2001
Quentin Blake was born in 1932 and read English at Cambridge, before attending Chelsea Art College. He has won many major prizes for illustration, including the Kate Greenaway Medal (1980) and the Red House Children's Book Award (1981) for Mister Magnolia. He is also the winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award for Illustration and in 1990 was voted 'The Illustrator's Illustrator' by Observer Magazine. A tireless promoter of children's literature – and a long-time collaborator with roald Dahl – Quentin Blake was awarded the OBE in 1988 and in 2005 he was awarded a CBE for services to Children's Literature. In the most recent New Year’s Honours list he has been knighted.Quentin was the inaugural Children's Laureate (1999-2001), an experience he recorded in his book Laureate's Progress. During his time in the role, he celebrated children's books and children's book illustration with a range of projects and exhibitions, and conceived the idea for the House of Illustration, the world's first centre dedicated to the art of illustration in all its forms.
Michael RosenMichael Rosen
Children's Laureate 2007-2009
Michael Rosen is one of the best-known figures not only in the children's book world but also the British arts scene. His first book of children's poems was published in 1974, and he has gone on to write numerous award winning children's poetry books, picture books and non-fiction, such as Quick, Let's Get Out of Here and We're Going on a Bear Hunt.
Alongside this he performs, teaches, lectures, presents Word of Mouth on Radio 4 and reviews books for the Guardian. In 2007, Michael was appointed the fifth Children's Laureate - a role which he says will be used to be an 'ambassador of fun'.
http://www.michaelrosen.co.uk/
Judges
The Blue Peter Book Awards 2013 judges are The Times columnist and best-selling author of How to be a Woman Caitlin Moran; best-selling children’s author of How to Train Your Dragon, Cressida Cowell; librarian extraordinaire Jake Hope; and Blue Peter Editor Tim Levell, who chaired the panel.
Find out more about what this year's judges thought of the six shortlisted books
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Cressida CowellCressida Cowell was born in London in 1966 and grew up there and on a small, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland where she and her family spent summers in complete isolation from the outside world. Her time on the island fuelled her imagination – especially in terms of writing about dragons and Vikings - and she had begun writing stories by the time she was nine years old.
Cressida has published several picture books, including the Emily Brown stories, which won the Nestle childrens’ book prize in 2006. Since 2002 she has also written books for older children, the Hiccup series, the first book of which, How to Train Your Dragon was made by DreamWorks Animation. The tenth book in the series, How To Seize a Dragon’s Jewel, is published in September 2012. Cressida still lives in London and is married with three children. -
Jake HopeJake Hope is a freelance book consultant and is the reading development manager for Lancashire. Voted as one of only ten top librarians of the future during the national 'Love Libraries Campaign', Jake regularly reviews and commentates on children's books and has lectured on psychoanalytical approaches to children's literature. Jake has judged the prestigious Carnegie and Greenaway medals and has trained judges for both awards. He has been a Jury member on the International Bologna Ragazzi award and has spoken on and chaired panels at conferences and festivals across the United Kingdom. Jake is a passionate champion of children's reading and literature.
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Tim LevellBlue Peter EditorTim Levell has been Blue Peter Editor since September 2007. Previously he was the Editor of the children's news programme Newsround, where he was also a producer and reporter. In total, Tim has worked in children's media for 13 years. Tim has also spent time at Sky News and on the BBC News website, and started his career as a local radio reporter at BBC Radio Sheffield.
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Caitlin MoranCaitlin Moran published her first novel, for children, aged 15, became a columnist for The Times at eighteen, and is the author of the international best-seller How To Be A Woman. She also has very big hair. Her latest book Moranthology is out now.
About the Blue Peter Book Awards 2013
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