Tuesday 20 October 2015

Championing children's humourous fiction


At a time when comedy fiction is at a premium, I am delighted that Scholastic has announced the launch of a new book prize to celebrate the best funny books in children's literature. Poet and author Michael Rosen will chair the judging panel with other participants to be announced.

The Laugh Out Loud Book Prize, which Scholastic said will be known as the "Lollies", will be awarded in three categories: Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book, Best Laugh Out Loud book for 6–8s and Best Laugh Out Loud book for 9–13s. Publishers will be invited to submit books for consideration from late October. The panel will select four books to make up the shortlist in each category, but the winners will be decided entirely by children, with voting taking place via a website: www.scholastic.co.uk/lollies.

The publisher decided to champion the new award after its recent Kids & Family Reading Report (www.scholastic.co.uk/readingreport) showed that funny books are really engaging for children, with 63% saying that what they want most in books is "books that make me laugh".

The shortlist will be announced in March 2016 and the final awards will take place in September 2016.

Michael Rosen said: "Everyone who is interested in children's reading knows that for many, many children, the thing that gets them going is a book that makes them fall about laughing. Weirdly, they're not always that easy to find. This prize will be like a great big signpost saying, 'This way laughs' and that could be the moment that a child who doesn't read, turns into one who does. I think that's really exciting."

The submissions process will be open between 23rd October and 6th November 2015 and publishers can download an entry form at www.scholastic.co.uk/lollies when submissions open.

John Dean

No comments:

Post a Comment