Giles Andreae and Sarah McIntyre win Sheffield Children's Book Awards

Comics artist Sarah McIntyre has won this year's Sheffield Children's Book Award for her book Morris the Mankiest Monster, written by Giles Andreae.

Celebrating its 22nd year, the awards were presented at Sheffield Town Hall this week.

Commenting on the award on her blog, a shocked Sarah says she had no inkling that Morris the Mankiest Monster was going to win a prize.

Described as  "the most revolting picture book of the year", The Bookseller warned potential readers "Morris the Mankiest Monster just gets worse and worse as you read aloud the rhyming text, snot, ear wax, pustules... it's really hard to keep going.

"This book needs a warning to parents - they're going to have to read it over and over again - children will absolutely love it."

"I could hardly believe it when Morris took the Best Picture Book prize," Sarah reveals. "I hadn't even prepared a speech, and since the weather was cold, I wore my scuffy ten-year-old Doc Marten boots and thick socks my auntie knit me, thinking no one would notice (since I wasn't going to go on stage or anything). But not only did they ask me to do one speech, but two speeches when Morris won the prize for the Overall Winner 2010! That's up against all the big-kid novels!"

Run by the Sheffield School Library Service, the Sheffield Children’s Book Award began in 1988 and was first started to encourage children and young people to read and also to highlight the very best children’s books published each year. In the first year just six local schools took part, but this number has grown every year to a total of 152 schools in 2007.

Each school chooses a book category for the class and they are given a start up pack of ideas along with a collection of books to read and review. Each child is asked to vote for their favourite book and these votes are then collated over the summer.

Our congratulations to Sarah and Giles for their win, and all those who also won, commended and shortlisted.

The Winners


Overall winner 2010: Morris the Mankiest Monster by Giles Andreae & Sarah McIntyre
Best Picture Book: Morris the Mankiest Monster
Best Shorter Novel: Boom! by Mark Haddon
Best Longer Novel: Gone by Michael Grant

Highly Commended

Picture Book: Don't Dip Your Chips in Your Drink, Kate! by Caryl Hart & Leigh Hodgkinson
Shorter Novel: How Kirsty Jenkins Stole the Elephant by Elen Caldecott
Longer Novel: The Dead House by Anne Cassidy

Commended

Picture Book: The Great Dog Bottom Swap by Peter Bently & Mei Matsuoka
Shorter Novel: Secrets of Hightower by Martin G Naylor
Longer Novel: Life, Interrupted by Damian Kelleher

• Read more about Morris the Mankiest Monster

• More about the Sheffield Children's Book Awards at: www.sheffieldchildrensbookawards.co.uk