The winners of the Blue Peter Book Awards have been announced - A Kind of Spark by Elle McNicoll won Best Story and the award for Best Book with Facts went to Mike Barfield and illustrator Jess Bradley for A Day In The Life Of A Poo, A Gnu And You. The Blue Peter Book Awards, now in their 21st year, aim to guide children towards quality literature, encouraging them to read and establish a love of reading for life.
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Blue Peter Best Story
Blue Peter Best Book with Facts
Past Blue Peter Book Awards Winners
The winning and shortlisted titles for the Blue Peter Awards 2021, Best Story are:
When 11 year old Addie, who is autistic, learns about the 16th century women who were persecuted for witchcraft, she starts to lobby for a local memorial in her small Scottish village. With the help of a new girl at school, she fights valiantly against injustice and oppression. The Branford Boase Award Judges said:
The winning and shortlisted titles for the Blue Peter Book Awards 2021, Best Book with Facts;
A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You is packed with facts, laughs and amazing illustrations you can dive into all day long. Meet your grumpy liver that has to do practically EVERYTHING; your trusty hands that are very, well, handy; the spiky porcupines ready to charge; lonely Mars rovers abandoned on ...
The award for Best Story goes to A Kind of Spark, the brilliant debut novel by Elle McNicoll.
Offering an utterly convincing and honest narrative voice, A Kind of Spark challenges the stereotypes that can be associated with autism, and teaches us that there are 'many different ways to be autistic.'
Elle said: "As someone who grew up watching Blue Peter and discovering brilliant new books from the show, it is an extraordinary moment to be recognised. To be a part of their World Book Day celebrations is great, and to have been voted the winner by readers is life changing.”
And Mike Barfield and illustrator Jess Bradley's won the Best Book with Facts for A Day In The Life Of A Poo, A Gnu And You.
Packed full of zany trivia about everything worth knowing - from pimples to porcupines- each element is written in the form of a first person diary and brilliantly presented in cartoon strips.
Mike and Jess said: “Winning any award is a huge honour but winning the Blue Peter Book Award is extra special. I adored the programme as a child, and again as a parent, watching it with my own (now grown-up) children. The child in me that still persists to this day does find it rather amusing that a book with ‘Poo’ in its title will now have to be mentioned several times on the show. I had so much fun drawing everything from poos to gnus, and I’m really happy to know that so many children enjoyed reading about them!”
Diana Gerald, BookTrust CEO says: “Every year without fail, the Blue Peter Book Awards showcase the exceptional talent in the world of children's books and this year is no different. These fantastic books will help children to be inspired, creative, confident and encourage different ways of thinking. As always with the judging, it was a very close call, but Elle, Mike and Jess triumphed. Congratulations to the very deserving winners.”
Discovering what makes a rainbow shine and what a day in the life of a hiccup is like, exploring what it means to be different, standing up for what you believe in, laugh out loud humour, learning astonishing facts about the evolution of Homo sapiens in Africa and the ancient civilisations of the world, and a kaleidoscopic selection of inventors from all over the world: the 2021 Blue Peter Book Awards shortlist has all of this and more.
The full shortlisted titles for the Best Story;
A Kind of Spark by Ellie McNicoll
Life of Riley: Beginner's Luck by Simon James Green
Anisha, Accidental Detective: School's Cancelled by Serena Patel
And the shortlisted titles for Best Book with Facts;
The Humans by Jonny Marx
A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You by Mike Barfield
Inventors by Professor Robert Winston
The titles were chosen by the judges, which this year are:
Ellen Evans - Editor, Blue Peter (non-voting chair)
Angela Young - Producer, Blue Peter
Esther Jackson-Burton - Assistant Script Editor at BBC Children’s
Emily Drabble - Head of Children's Books and Prizes at BookTrust
Caroline Hill-Trevor - Head of Book Purchasing at BookTrust
Scott Evans - Primary school teacher and reading lead in South Wales
Simon Hudd - Primary school teacher and reading lead in London
Soraya Berry - Secondary School Learning Resource Manager in London
Jasmine Richards - Founder of Storymix
Blue Peter Editor Ellen Evans said: "The Blue Peter Book Awards give kids the opportunity to vote for their favourite books and it’s fantastic to hear them talk about reading for fun. The two winners are brilliant books. I hope Elle McNicoll’s A Kind of Spark will inspire kids to find their own voice, like Addie, and to stand up for what they believe in. Mike Barfield and Jess Bradley’s A Day in the Life of a Poo, a Gnu and You, is so visual and fun, that young readers will love discovering all kind of facts about the world they live in, from the secret diary of a slug, to how your heart beats, or why volcanoes explode.”
The winners were chosen by more than 200 young Blue Peter viewers drawn from 12 schools across the UK, who picked the winners of the Blue Peter Book of the Year 2021 in each of the two categories: Best Story and Best Book with Facts.
The winning books were announced on World Book Day during Blue Peter on Thursday 4 March 2021, with the winning authors and illustrators also appearing on the special awards episode of the show. The Blue Peter Awards are managed by BookTrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity.
You can keep up to date with the Awards @Booktrust and at www.booktrust.org.uk/blue-peter-book-awards
