We are beyond excited to announce that the Guardian children’s books site has won the International Young Reader Prize public service category from the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers.
We’ve competed against sites and projects from all over the world and come out top and we couldn’t have done it without all our incredible members who write all our reviews and tell us what they want on their site.
It’s your website and you’ve made it a brilliant one. Thank you. We know books can make the world a better a place and are so proud of all the children and authors who contribute.
The judges said: “It was a very easy decision for our jury, which concluded the Guardian children’s books site is a great idea for how a newspaper can engage with young people and take them, and their opinions, seriously.”
To celebrate our win we thought we’d polish our halo by asking some of our favourite authors to tell us what they think of our site and here’s what they had to say:
Malorie Blackman, children’s laureate and author of Noughts and Crosses
It’s great to see such a variety of coverage on the Guardian children’s books site, there is something there for everybody who loves books!
Michael Morpurgo, author of War Horse
Bravo to the Guardian children’s books site on winning this award. The Guardian’s commitment to children’s books and to reading for pleasure is second to none. It is so important to take books and literature for children seriously, both for children, adults and everyone involved with creating life-long readers. I was interviewed by two young people from the Guardian children’s book site recently and I have rarely had a more interesting and perceptive interview.
Jeff kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Congratulations on your win! The content on the site is fantastic. A dedicated book site for kids, where they can also post their views and talk about their favourite books is a wonderful thing.
Jacqueline Wilson, author of 100 books including Tracy Beaker
I think it’s wonderful that the Guardian has such a brilliant website devoted to children’s books. It emphasises that reading should be for pleasure, not necessarily for instruction or to get good marks in school. It’s a great way of telling children about all sorts of new books, and gives them an opportunity to meet and question their favourite authors. I’ve very much enjoyed these sessions!
Michael Grant, author of the Gone series
You know what’s great about the Guardian Children’s Books Page? There is a distinct lack of politicians. My President, your Prime Minister, that dude up in Scotland, they are all absent, and that fact alone should have people flocking to Guardian children’s books, in order to learn about children’s books, about teen books, about my books, and to simply enjoy as a pol-free sanctuary.
Francesca Simon, author of Horrid Henry
The Guardian’s Childrens books website is everything a site should be – a gathering place for readers, a chance for young people to share books, meet authors, and discover just how wonderful reading for pleasure is. I also love that budding journalists can post reviews, and get recommendations from their peers. Congratulations!
David Levithan, author of Boy Meets Boy and Every Day
The best YA literature is about sharing emotional truths with readers, and the Guardian is one of the best beacons we have to show readers the way to this literature and these truths. Engaging in discussion about our books is the same thing as engaging in discussion about the major themes in our lives, and the Guardian is an excellent home for such engagement and such discussion, for readers of all ages and identities.
Frank Cottrell Boyce, author of Framed
The Guardian children’s book site is the best library in the Universe - a place where readers’ can go to share their opinions, writers to try out ideas, parents to find out what’s new. You can even get drawing lessons. It’s a 24-7 literary salon.
SF Said, author of Varjak Paw and Phoenix
I’m delighted to hear that the Guardian Children’s Books site has won a prize for being a public service to young readers. I think it’s also a public service to writers and publishers, parents and teachers, bloggers, booksellers and librarians – because it offers the best coverage of children’s books on the web. It’s fuelled by a passionate commitment to reading for pleasure, and I love all the work it does to build awareness of the most exciting developments in children’s books today. Congratulations to all those who make it happen!
Patrick Ness, author of More Than This
I love the way the Guardian children’s books site gets children so primarily involved They write scores of reviews, writes articles giving the young reader’s perspective on hot children’s books topics (something that occurs to practically no other newspaper), and is, moreover, a safe and fun place for the hundreds of thousands of young booklovers out there to find their clan and claim it as their own. Wish I’d had it when I was young.
Liz Pichon, author of Tom Gates
Congratulations to the Guardian children’s book website! So VERY well deserved as not many papers give that much importance to children’s books in general. I’m always browsing around it, as the website itself is a fantastic combination of book news, facts, information and a place for children to have THEIR say about the books they enjoy reading.
The Guardian joins papers from mainland Europe, Scandinavia, South America and Asia in the awards, which will be made in Bali in November.
Thank you to all the authors and young people who make our site what it is. Want to get involved in all of the fun? Come and join us.
