It’s an honour to be an Ambassador for the new Children’s Book Award alongside SF Said, Andy Seed and Christina Gabbitas (who is also the creator and organiser of the award).
It is especially lovely as this is an awards scheme that will be judged by children from ten primary schools, teachers and libraries in less privileged areas. More details to follow soon.
Exciting times ahead ….
Utterly delighted to see my ‘Shinoy and the Chaos Crew’ series shortlisted in Teach Primary‘s 2021 Awards!
With huge thanks to the ever-awesome Zoë Clarke, our amazing illustrator Amit Tayal and all the team at Big Cat Collins & HarperCollins Children’s Books UK for their endless sense of fun and adventure.
We have some tough competition, but it’s great to be in there fighting!
The winners will be announced in October.
Call to action … Chaos Crew 
I had a great time at the recent Tees Valley Education Book Awards in Middlesbrough. It was an honour to be on a shortlist that included some of my favourite authors, who are also all fab people (yes, authors are people too!).
Catching up with Gabrielle Kent, Em Lynas and Dan Smith is always a pleasure, but it was a shame Sophie Anderson couldn’t make it (as she was adventuring in Canada!). I also got to meet Tom Palmer for the first time, which was brilliant.
It was a pleasure spending the morning in a local school and getting to meet lots of the keen readers involved in the process. An awards scheme like this is all about the readers – we just come along at the end and steal the glory! The teaching staff and all the pupils had put huge amounts of work into it and had obviously had fun. The awards ceremony itself was wonderful entertainment. A choir sang (thankfully not including the authors), awards were given out to the outstanding readers contributions and there was a quiz too! Although my book didn’t win (and you can see by the photo that I wasn’t upset by that!), I think the children chose very well as Tom’s Armistice Runner is an amazing book and a worthy winner.
Hugest of thanks to everyone involved, especially to Dan Mount, who came up with the idea and organised the event. Good luck with next year!
Yay!!!
It is a massive honour to be shortlisted in the inaugural Tees Valley Education Book of the Year 2019 Award!
Especially as my book is alongside some AMAZING books by fantastic authors – most of who I am friends with! I hope that doesn’t cause any problems to our friendships!! It is an award that encourages school children in the area to share, express and hopefully develop their love of reading and this year it has focussed the shortlist on Northern authors.
It is a thrill to be involved. Thank you to all the organisers and best of luck to everyone.
The full shortlist is:
The House with Chicken Legs – Sophie Anderson
Armistice Runner – Tom Palmer
Knights and Bikes – Gabrielle Kent
Below Zero – Dan Smith
You Can’t Make Me Go To Witch School – Em Lynas
Some chocolatey book – by some bloke!