Longlist announced for the inaugural Klaus Flugge Prize

Twenty picture books in the running for important new illustration prize

The longlist for the inaugural Klaus Flugge Prize has been announced. The Klaus Flugge Prize will be awarded to the most promising and exciting newcomer to children’s book illustration. It honours publisher Klaus Flugge, a supremely influential figure in picture books, who this year celebrates the 40^thanniversary of his publishing house Andersen Press.

Twenty books by debut picture book illustrators have made the longlist. Publisher Quarto, which includes Frances Lincoln and Wide Eyed, has four books on the list; Walker Books and Child’s Play have two each.  In total 14 publishers are represented, including independents Gecko Press, Old Barn Books, Flying Eye Books, Fat Fox, Nosy Crow and Child’s Play.

The judges are Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell; Tony Ross, the UK’s biggest selling children’s illustrator; Professor Martin Salisbury of the Cambridge School of Art; and Ferelith Hordon, editor of Books for Keeps and IBBYLink.

Chair of the judges Julia Eccleshare said: “We are delighted to have such a varied and intriguing longlist in the first year of this important new book award.  Information books, myth, funny stories and some extremely thoughtful pieces of storytelling all feature, and the illustrators work in an equally wide range of media and styles. Our panel of expert judges are looking forward to discussing the books and choosing a shortlist.”

The Klaus Flugge Prize longlist in full:
Jill and the Dragon, Lesley Barnes, edited by Anna Ridley (Tate Publishing)
Have You Seen Elephant?, David Barrow, edited by Julia Marshall (Gecko Press)
Cinderella’s Sister and the Big Bad Wolf, Migy Blanco, edited by Louise Bolongaro (Nosy Crow)
The Jar of Happiness, Ailsa Burrows, edited by Sue Baker (Child’s Play)
Lion Practice, Emma Carlisle, edited by Emily Ford (Macmillan)
The Zoomers’ Handbook, Thiago De Moraes, edited Libby Hamilton (Andersen Press)
Too Many Toys, Heidi Deedman, edited Maria Tunney (Walker Books)
Hector and the Hummingbird, Nicholas John Frith, edited by Alison Green (Scholastic)
The Girl with the Parrot on her Head, Daisy Hirst, edited by Lizzie Sitton (Walker Books)
Ice in the Jungle, Ariane Hofmann-Maniyar edited by Sue Baker (Child’s Play)
The Crow’s Tale, Naomi Howarth, edited by Janetta Otter-Barry, (Quarto Frances Lincoln)
Toby and the Ice Giants, Joe Lillington, edited by Harriet Birkenshaw (Flying Eye Books)
The Bear and the Piano, David Litchfield, edited by Katie Cotton, (Quarto Frances Lincoln)
Super Happy Magic Forest, Matty Long, edited by Peter Marley (OUP)
Wanted! Ralfy Rabbit Book Burglar, Emily Mackenzie, edited by Emma Blackburn (Bloomsbury)
Dog on a Train, Kate Prendergast, edited by Ruth Huddleston (Old Barn Books)
Lili, Wen Dee Tan, edited by Holly Millbank (Fat Fox)
Counting Lions, Stephen Walton, edited by Katie Cotton, (Quarto Frances Lincoln)
The Wonder Garden, Kristjana S Williams, edited by Jenny Broom (Quarto Wide Eyed)
How to be Dog, Jo Williamson, edited by Pauliina Malinen Teodoro (Scholastic)

The shortlist will be announced on 9 June 2016 and the winner will be revealed in September 2016.

Klaus Flugge was born in Hamburg in 1934, apprenticed to a bookshop and sent to Book Trade School in Leipzig. He emigrated to America at the age of 23 as an East German refugee who spoke only German and Russian. After a variety of jobs, and two years as an American GI, he was offered a job working as a Personal Assistant to Lew Schwartz, owner of Abelard-Schuman publishing in New York. After only a year and a half Schwartz suggested he go to Europe to build up the very small list they had there and came to London in 1961. He launched Andersen Press – named after Hans Christian Andersen - in the autumn of 1976.

The roll call of artists Klaus Flugge has worked with at Andersen Press reads like a textbook on illustration: David McKee, Tony Ross, Satoshi Kitamura, Michael Foreman, Susan Varley, Emma Chichester Clark, Sir Quentin Blake, Chris Riddell, Ruth Brown and David Lucas to name but a very few.

In 1999, he became the first publisher to receive the Eleanor Farjeon Award for outstanding contribution to children’s books and in 2010 he became the first and so far only publisher to be awarded Honorary Membership of the Youth Libraries Group. In 2013 Klaus was made an honorary citizen of the City of Bologna in recognition of his commitment to children's books abroad.

Andersen Press is one of the leading independent children’s publishers, publishing some of the biggest names in the world of children's books including the much-loved picture book characters the Little Princess and Elmer the patchwork elephant. Andersen Press is the home of many award-winning authors and illustrators including Melvin Burgess, Rebecca Stead, Satoshi Kitamura, Tony Ross, David McKee, Chris Judge and Jeanne Willis. Andersen Press was founded in 1976 by Klaus Flugge.

Chris Riddell is the 2015 – 2017 Children’s Laureate.  He a prolific writer and illustrator whose work is familiar to both children and adults. He is known especially for his distinctive line drawings with their clever caricature, fascinating detail and often enchanting fantasy elements.  He has worked widely with a variety of collaborators including Paul Stewart, Neil Gaiman and Russell Brand.  In addition to his children’s books, Chris is a renowned political cartoonist whose work appears in the Observer, the Literary Review and the New Statesman. He lives in Brighton with his wife and has three grown-up children.

Tony Ross was born in London in 1938. He trained at the Liverpool School of Art and has worked in advertising and as a cartoonist. Klaus Flugge at Andersen Press published his book Goldilocks and the Three Bears in 1976, and it was voted one of the best books of the year by the Federation of Children’s Books Groups. Since then he has produced over 50 picture books for Andersen Press, including the bestselling Dr Xargle and Little Princessseries. He has illustrated over 3000 books for authors including Jeanne Willis, Michael Palin, Eric Morcambe, David Walliams, Astrid Lindgren, Enid Blyton, Francesca Simon and Shakespeare. In its new illustrator chart published in February 2016, the Bookseller revealed that Tony Ross was the biggest selling children’s illustrator in the UK in 2015, with value sales of his books totalling more than £9m, according to data from Nielsen BookScan.

Professor Martin Salisbury is Course Leader, MA Children’s Book Illustration at the Cambridge School of Art and Director, the Centre for Children’s Book Studies. Martin is an illustrator and author of a number of books on the practice and theory of children’s book illustration. He has been invited to speak on the subject around the world has acted as chair of the International Jury for the Ragazzi Awards at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

Ferelith Hordon was a Children's Librarian with Wandsworth for almost the whole of her career. She was - and still is - an active member of CILIP YLG and has served as Chair of both YLG London and of the National Committee. She has been a CILIP Carnegie-Greenaway judge and has chaired the judging committee for those awards. She is editor ofBooks for Keeps, the online review magazine for children's literature and also editor ofIBBYLink, the online journal of IBBY UK.

For general enquiries email Anne Marley anne.marley@tiscali.co.uk