Our final ‘closer look’ at our Independent Author Book Award winners:
Special Category. The Children’s picture Books.
We gathered together a group of eager beaver readers and listeners under 10 years of age because the WforW team felt it impossible to compare the children’s picture book entries with the others. It was huge fun working with the children, and let me tell you, they know their onions. The decisions were unanimous.
Keep an eye on Frost Magazine and www,wordsforthewounded.co.uk as summer ends to hear our exciting ideas which will provide even more opportunities for aspiring writers, and help veterans in need at the same time.
1st Place: Ruby’s Story – (Ruby the Routemaster Series) Text by Christophe Dupuy Illustrations by Tim Duke
Ruby’s Story – (Ruby the Routemaster series)
Judges’ Comments:
Right from the start this glorious book draws in the reader. ‘London, one of the busiest cities in the world, is a place that never sleeps.’
Immediately it promises excitement. What’s more it’s historically accurate. We want to know all about the bus called Ruby who lives in a London bus garage, and travels with her driver, Dave, and Clive, her conductor (remember those?)
We drive along in Ruby doing what she loves but then – a crisis, the first of several. She learns that the Routemaster buses are to be replaced by modern buses. Is it the end for Ruby? She learns she has been sold to a bus company in Scotland, and must drive to her new name. Does she ever arrive?
There is excitement, adventure, disappointment until one day a bloke called Christophe Dupuy arrives and takes Ruby to Somerset to live with him and Kim. (And he really did do this. Perhaps one day he’ll tell us why?)
Lovely story, immaculately told with intricate illustrations that are a rich visual feast. The Routemaster buses live on.
Our children’s reading team agreed it should come first.
Chris Dupuy
Although I was born in Paris, I lived most of my childhood years in South East London and from a very early age I spent a great deal of my time going off on adventures exploring London and all the amazing sights it has to offer. By far the easiest way to get around was on London’s public transport system. In particular was the trusty Routemaster bus. With over 4000 on the road in the nation’s capital, it was always easy to hop on and off once you arrived at the desired destination. They would run every ten minutes or so, and sitting on the long bench seat by the conductors vantage point, I always felt very safe and looked after. This was in contrast to my dysfunctional home life and one could argue that at the tender age of six this was a very risky thing to do. The sad thing is that in reality i was safer in the big bad world than I was in my own home. That in itself is another story to maybe tell another day.
Runner Up: Little Hoglet’s Egg Race by Richard Middleton
Judges’ Comments:
Who doesn’t love a story about a hedgehog?
Richard Middleton has been clever with this one. The delicious illustrations don’t merely reflect the story, but progress it – something that the children particularly noticed.
You see, as fast as a mother says her eggs won’t want to join in, the illustrations show them doing just that, in spite of mum. So there is tension between the text and the visual images, and a naughtiness that the children loved.
Richard Middleton is the writer and illustrator of the Little Hoglet’s Magical Year series, with Little Hoglet’s Christmas and Little Hoglet’s Egg Race already available, and Little Hoglet’s Bonfire Night coming soon. The seasonal series will be completed with Little Hoglet’s Summer Holiday. Richard’s other published picture book is The Stinky Hippobottomus, which has been described as “utterly delightful” even though poo is mentioned in the book several times. Richard is a Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator and speaks to schoolchildren all over the world about creative writing. He is also the author of the Wyrm Saga series, a series of fantasy thrillers for older children and beyond. The series currently includes the novels The Wyrm Conspiracy and Wyrm Gold, and the chapbooks Arran, Joney and the Goblinensis Flatulata and Gods Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen. In his spare time Richard and his family are taken for walks by their dogs Ellie and Lincoln, who are both trying to learn human speech.
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