Scottish Children's Book Awards

Ross Collins, Ross MacKenzie and Nicola Morgan have been named as this year’s winners of the 2011 SCOTTISH CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARDS, Scotland’s largest Children’s Book Prize (each winner receives £3,000 ) which is voted for exclusively by Scottish children themselves. The winners were announced yesterday during a special ceremony at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, attended by 600 young people from all over
Scotland.

Originally set up by the Scottish Arts Council in 1999, the Scottish Children’s Book Awards are now run by Scottish Book Trust in partnership with Creative Scotland.
Record numbers of children took part in the awards in 2011, with over 23,000 children from all over Scotland voting for their favourite books – a staggering 40% more than last year - and over a quarter of all Scottish schools registering to take part. Votes were cast from every single Scottish education authority, from Dumfries
and Galloway to Shetland, in schools, libraries and nurseries.

Award-winning author Ross Collins won the Bookbug Readers Category (0-7 Years) for his picture book Dear Vampa (published by Hodder). Ross said:
“I am delighted and honoured to win the Bookbug Category of the Scottish Children’s Book Awards 2011 for ‘Dear Vampa’. I’d like to thank all the schools and children who participated this year. I only wish that I could bite each one of them personally.”

Debut young-fiction author Ross MacKenzie won the Younger Readers Category (8-11 Years) for his first novel, Zac and the Dream Pirates (published by Chicken House). He said: “I'm delighted (and stunned!) to hear that ‘Zac and the Dream Pirates’ has won the Younger Readers category of the Scottish Children's Book Awards 2011. Knowing that thousands of children across Scotland have enjoyed my book enough to vote for it is incredible. Perhaps it's fitting that the story is about dreams – I can't help thinking I'm going to wake from this one at any minute!”

Popular teenage fiction author Nicola Morgan won the Older Readers Category (12-16 Years) for Wasted (published by Walker). Nicola commented:
“I am overwhelmed and still can't quite believe it. ‘Wasted’ was a risky book to write, because it's unusual - well, ok, weird - and that meant it was really hard to predict whether readers would respond well. But the risk paid off and I'm utterly thrilled and incredibly grateful to all the readers who voted and the adults who worked so hard toorganise the awards.”

The total prize fund is £12,000, with the shortlisted authors and illustrators receiving £500 per book, and the winning authors and illustrators winning £3,000 per book at the award ceremony. Last year’s winning Bookbug Readers Category title, What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson, was also gifted to all primary 1 children in
Scotland in November 2011.