Thomas wins Waterstones children’s prize, ‘Nevermoor’ wins younger readers category

Jessica Townsend’s middle-grade novel Nevermoor (Lothian) has won the younger readers category of the 2018 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.

The UK retailer described the Queensland writer’s debut as ‘one of the most inventive fantasy novels for children of recent years’.

US author Angie Thomas won in the older fiction category for The Hate U Give (Walker Books) and was also declared the overall winner of the prize.

Waterstones managing director James Daunt described Thomas’s debut as a book that ‘should have a readership far beyond a core audience of young adults’. ‘Ours is a children’s prize, but there is no upper age limit to being stunned by beautiful writing of this visceral power,’ said Daunt.

The third category winner was The Secret of Black Rock by Joe Todd-Stanton (Walker Books), which won for illustrated books.

The category winners each receive a £2000 (A$3670) cash prize, with Thomas receiving an extra £3000 (A$5500) as the overall winner.

The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize is an annual award to ‘showcase of the very best emerging talent in children’s publishing today’. The prize is voted on by Waterstones booksellers, with the winning books promoted across the retail chain’s stores.

Last year’s award winner—Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s The Girl of Ink and Stars (Chicken House)—increased sales by 1400% across the Waterstones network, according to a statement from the retailer.

For more information, visit the prize website here.

Category: Junior Local news