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Behind the Scenes of Book Competitions
with Alison Prince 12th July 2003
A small but much travelled group of ACWIS members settled in Hillhead Library in July to hear the writer, Alison Prince, explain her criteria in judging The Scottish Arts Council Children’s Book of the Year Award.
She told how in January and February of this year she, and the other 4 judges, were asked to read the 87 published entries. Clutching notebook and pencil (for memory notes), she eventually ticked or crossed each book. Books ticked more than once were kept in the running.
In May, the five met to agree a first, second and third placement from a short-list of 6 books. Every judge had to justify his/her choice.
In each entry, Alison looked for interest (child’s point of view), originality (themes, humour), organisation (logic, story, strong characters) and style (truth, plot, hardworking words, good endings).
Her golden rules are:
- Don’t patronise children.
- Fast plots (children get bored easily)
- Abstract thoughts and inventions (children understand more than we think, so don’t miss bits out)
- Respect the child
The short-listed books in the children’s book category were:
Debi Gliori for ‘Pure Dead Wicked’
Keith Gray for ‘Warehouse’
Harry Horse for ‘Little Rabbit Lost’
The SAC Children’s Book of the Year Award 2003 went to ‘Little Rabbit Lost’ by Harry Horse (writer & illustrator).
A SAC info. bulletin stated:
“a beautifully illustrated work that the judges felt contained as much emotion, narrative and characterisation as novels aimed at a much more grown-up readership”.
Alison also answered the following questions.
- If writer and illustrator are different, the prize is split.
- Books are put forward by the publishers for the SAC Book Awards.
- Alison also suggested that writers use The Writers News for competition updates.