Tightrope walker and author Katherine Rundell was last night crowned the overall winner of the 2014 Waterstones children's book prize with Rooftoppers (Faber and Faber). And as the prize is celebrating its 10th birthday, there was an extra special feel to this year's award.
Katherine Rundell fought off tough competition for the top prize from teen category winner Holly Smale with her debut novel Geek Girl (HarperCollins Children's Books) and Nicola O'Byrne who won best picture book category with Open Very Carefully (Nosy Crow).
The Waterstones children's books prize is worth a lot of money as well as prestige, which is extra important as only new writers can enter (the prize is for authors of their first or second books). Holly Smale and Nicola O'Byrne have won £2000 each and, as overall winner, Katherine Rundell is taking home £5000.
So let's find out a little bit more about the winner Katherine Rundell. Rooftoppers is the story about a young girl's race to find her missing mother over the rooftops of Paris – it was inspired by the Katherine's own night-time walks and climbs (usually barefoot) on the rooftops of Oxford's colleges when she was at university (we told you she was a tightrope walker didn't we?).
Rooftoppers has already been championed by a number of Guardian children's books site remembers who have given it great reviews so we're not exactly falling off our chairs to find Katherine Rundell is the winner! LottieLongshanks wrote that once she'd raced through Rooftoppers she wanted to read it again to re-live every moment . Gabs' only criticism was that she wanted more and Safah found Rooftoppers fresh and entertaining. If you haven't read Rooftoppers yet, check out the first chapter. You can also find out a bit more about Katherine in her top 10 orphans. Katherine also won best story in the Blue Peter Book award last month and has been shortlisted for the Carnegie medal.
Holly Smale's Geek Girl has won best book for teens. It's a brilliantly comic look at being a teenager, inspired by Holly's own experiences as a model and has already had rave reviews on the Guardian children's books site – the offer of copies of Geek Girl and the sequel Model Misfit caused a virtual stampede when we offered it to site members!
Gabs called it incredible, Pheebz recommended it to geeky girls who want to know what it's like to be chic and chic girls who want to know what it's like to be a geek and Miabc was hooked from the first line and couldn't put it down.
The winner of the best picture book, is illustrator Nicola O'Bryne with Open Very Carefully. (Nick Bromley wrote the words). This gorgeous picture book is a snappy re-working of the children's classic The Ugly Duckling, starring an angry crocodile who's in the wrong book and proceeds to eat his way out!
Congratulations to all the winners and all the shortlisted authors. You can check out the full list of all the books that were shortlisted for the Waterstones children's book prize 2014.
Burning to write a review of a book you've read – maybe one of the winning or shortlisted books for the Waterstones prize? If you're not a member find out how to join in – and members remember to send your ace reviews to childrens.books@theguardian.com.
