Posted Friday February 12th 2010
by Rebecca Wilkie

To Waterstone’s Piccadilly for the presentation of the 2010 Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize. The nine shortlisted titles, which were voted for by booksellers across the country, ranged from a medieval fantasy mystery called The Crowfield Curse, to Desperate Measures, the story of teenage runaway siblings.

However, the award went to Katie Davies for her book for younger readers, The Great Hamster Massacre.  Katie received the prize from Children’s Laureate, Anthony Browne, as previous winners Sally Nicholls and Michelle Harrison (as well as Katie’s comedian husband, Alan Davies) watched on. 

The Great Hamster Massacre is a touching, very funny and occasionally rather bloody tale of a brother and sister whose pet hamsters are mysteriously slaughtered one day, prompting the pair to stage an investigation amongst their friends and neighbours. There are enough humorous asides in the text to amuse grown-up readers and the quirky black and white line illustrations from Hannah Shaw really add to its appeal for readers aged from six-to-nine-years-old.

It’s great to see a book for this sometimes overlooked age- group win a national prize. It can be tricky finding suitable titles in the six- to- nine-years-old category and the great success in recent years of Andy Stanton’s hilarious Mr Gum books (Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear won the 2008 Roald Dahl Funny Prize) and Lauren Child’s Clarice Bean chapter books, shows there is a real need amongst parents, teachers and librarians for good quality, illustrated chapter books to share with their children.

These books are important, as so often they are the titles that will mark the beginning of a child’s independent reading journey. The first book I ever read entirely by myself was Jill Murphy’s, The Worst Witch, the gentle humour and gorgeous black and white line drawings sparked a lifetime of voracious reading and now, over 30 years after the first book was published, the series is still much-loved by younger readers.

Post a comment to let us know your recommendations for books suitable for this age-group; we’re keen to know which titles have worked well with the children in your home or classroom.