A Children’s Booker?
You’ve got to like what they are doing with promoting children’s literature in the UK. Not only do they have a Children’s Laureate, a national centre for children’s books and have declared 2008 the National Year of Reading, there is now talk of a prestigious national award for children’s literature.
Already dubbed ‘the children’s Booker’, the award is intended to compensate for the demise of the Nestle Awards. It was announced earlier this year that these awards, some of Britain’s longest-running, would be discontinued and the focus placed on the book giving schemes Bookstart and Booked Up. Wendy Cooling gave us an overview of the success of the Bookstart programme at the recent CBCA conference.
In Australia we have the national CBCA Book of the Year Awards, and various Premier’s Awards in some of the states, but just imagine the prestige of a Miles Franklin Award for children’s literature. Oh, and a Children’s Laureate would be rather nice, too.
Some copycat ideas are worth pursuing.
CMIS Fiction Focus Blog
May 16th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
In the UK there’s also the Randolph Caldicott prize for children’s books. But Pixie - what a character! - loved by all, tho in reality a very severe critic. Formidable woman.