Thursday 30th April saw the first Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children's Book Award, hosted by Seven Stories: The Centre for Children's Books. Established in memory of the late Frances Lincoln, the award aims to promote understanding of other cultures in children's literature and to encourage and reward writers who may otherwise not be noticed.
The award received fifty entries from as far as India, Singapore, Australasia and Europe and the judges were said to be thrilled with the response. The winner, Cristy Burne was chosen by the judging panel for her manuscript Takeshita Demons - a “faced-past adventure story” of a young schoolgirl's move from Japan to the UK and the demons that follow her.
After her win was announced, Cristy treated us to a suspense-filled reading of an extract from 'Takeshita Demons'. The story is gripping, wonderfully written and truly unlike anything I've heard before. It is clear to see why the judges spoke so enthusiastically of their winner.
Also present on the evening were the three runners-up who each received a special mention from the judges and were urged to enter next year's awards if they are still yet to be published.
The enchanting Seven Stories Attic was the perfect venue for such an evening, and really added to the exciting atmosphere of the event.
One of the key aims of the Frances Lincoln Award is to acknowledge the influence books can have over the way young people see the world and the vast diversity of the shortlisted entries proves that in its first year it has succeeded.
The closing date for next year's Frances Lincoln Award is 26th February 2010, with the winner announced at Seven Stories in June. Let's hope that next year the number of applicants will have doubled at least!