2013 Scottish Children’s Book Awards Shortlist Announced

The shortlist for this year’s Scottish Children’s Book Awards, which celebrates the most popular children’s books by Scottish authors or illustrators, was announced earlier today!

THE SCOTTISH CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARDS 2013 SHORTLIST:

Bookbug Readers (3-7 years)

Paper Dolls by Julia Donaldson and Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan)

What’s the Time Mr Wolf by Debi Gliori (Bloomsbury)

Jumblebum by Chae Strathie and Ben Cort (Scholastic)

Younger Readers (8-11 years)

Black Tide by Caroline Clough (Floris)

The Accidental Time Traveller by Janis McKay (Floris)

Really Weird Removals.com by Daniela Sacerdoti (Floris)

Older Readers (12-16 years)

Ferryman by Claire McFall (Templar)

The Seeing by Diana Hendry (Bodley Head)

The Book of Doom by Barry Hutchison (Harper Collins)

The shortlist was chosen by a panel of judges including a teacher, librarian, bookseller, children’s books experts, a Bookbug coordinator and two groups of pupils. The nine shortlisted books will now go to a children’s vote. The three winning authors will be announced at a special award ceremony on Wednesday 5 March 2014.

Run by Scottish Book Trust in partnership with Creative Scotland, and voted for entirely by children, these are Scotland’s largest book awards, with a total prize fund of £12,000. Shortlisted authors and illustrators receive £500 per book, and the three overall winners receive £3,000 each.

Scottish Book Trust will also give a free copy of each of the three Bookbug category books to every P1 child during Book Week Scotland. The books will be gifted in the Bookbug Primary 1 Family Pack, funded by the Scottish Government and Education Scotland, and are intended to encourage P1 children, who are just beginning their learning journey, to enjoy reading and to think of it as a pleasurable activity. The pack will also serve as a link between schools, homes and libraries and will help support children in reading for pleasure.

2013 marks the seventh year that Scottish Book Trust has been running the awards. Voting numbers have increased dramatically year on year, with nearly 32,000 children voting in 2012. With this year’s polls open until 7 February 2014, the 2013 awards are likely to be the biggest ever in terms of children participating!