British Book Awards 2018

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A quick post about the British Book Awards 2018.....
The winners of the British Book Awards 2018 (known as the Nibbies) were announced yesterday and in the childrens' categories, it was very exciting!

First, let me say hats off to Bloomsbury Children's Books for being honoured with the Children's Publisher of the Year. Bloomsbury |(known for being the home of Harry Potter) has brought out some incredible kids books this year, as always. Congratulations!

Author of the year went to the incredible Philip Pullman! Not just a children's author, of course, but the release of the first in his prequel series (to His Dark Materials) La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust firmly tipped the hat in his favour. (And it is stunning...so read it NOW if you haven't already.)

The Children's Book of the Year had joint winners this year...drumroll please.... and the winners are:
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: a powerful, honest, empathetic look at race relations, violence and the nuances of human nature as experienced through the lives of young people. Written as a YA novel, this is a very thought-provoking and moving read for adults, as well.
And....The Lost Words by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris; a stunning picture book format based on words evoking the natural word that have been removed from the Oxford Children's Dictionary. Poetic ponderings of each individual word are beautifully set with Morris' incredible illustrations. (You'll want two copies...one to keep and one to frame.) Powerful and thought-provoking in a different way.
We also have Axel Scheffler honoured as illustrator of the year. Scheffler's illustrations are those that gave us the Gruffalo, Zog, The Smartest Giant in Town... not to mention his own Pip and Posey and many, many others. Imaginative and simply delightful. Congratulations!!!!



Because I am a children's bookseller and love nothing more than haunting childrens' bookshops and seeing them rise to the fore, I want to give a big cheer to The Book Nook in Hove for winning Children's Bookseller of the Year! Very well done, you wonderful people...I am delighted for you.

Just look at this place!!! Don't you want to go there?

And that is about that, at least for the kids categories at the British Book Awards.
Stay tuned next week when we visit the Childrens' Books Ireland awards...so excited!

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