And The Winner Is...

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The winners of the 21st Bisto Children's Book of the Year 2011 Awards have been announced today, and huge congratulations go to Chris Haughton. For his book, A Bit Lost, Chris received the overall Book of the Year award, which comes with a prize of €10,000. Chris also received the Eilis Dillon Award with a prize of €3000. The Eilis Dillon Award is given to a first time author or illustrator. This is the first time that both of these awards have been given to the same person!
The judges also selected three Honour Award recipients
Judges Special Award: Oliver Jeffers for The Heart and The Bottle for dealing with a sensitive subject in an outstanding way
Honour Award for Illustration: Andrew Whitson for Mac Rí Eireann for the quintessential character of the visual text that transforms this picture book into an aesthetic object of great desire – a true work of art
Honour Award for Fiction: Sheena Wilkinson for Taking Flight, a masterfully structured narrative which suggests, in an unsentimental manner, that the inner struggle to understand oneself can be redemptive
My absolute favourite of the awards given is the Children's Choice Award, which is chosen by children involved in the Bisto Shadowing Scheme all over Ireland. This year, the Children's Choice Award went to Taking Flight by Sheena Wilkinson.
The link below gives details of all the nominees and further details of the awards given. Congratulations Chris and all the winners and nominees!
http://www.childrensbooksireland.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=316&Itemid=191

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