David Almond shortlisted for Hans Christian Andersen Prize

David Almond up for double honours

Once again, congratulations are due to multi-award-winning author David Almond, who has been shortlisted for the Hans Christian Andersen prize, awarded biennially since 1956 to an author “whose complete works have made lasting contributions to children’s literature”. An impressive line-up of past winners includes Eleanor Farjeon, Tove Jansson and Astrid Lindgren. This year's winner will be announced on 23 March.

As we announced in an earlier newsletter, David is also nominated for The Astrid Lindgren award, which is presented a day later, on 24 March, at Lindgren’s birth place in Vimmerby, Sweden. The award is worth SEK5m (£460,000) and is given to a body of work “in the spirit of Astrid Lindgren, with a focus on a profound respect for democratic values and human rights”.

(March 19th New WritingNorth Newsletter)

As regular blog readers know, David is my favourite children's author. In fact he's my favourite author all round. His nominations are well deserved as anyone who's read his books will agree.

North East author David Almond is chosen as Liverpool Read

Graphic novel The Savage, written by David Almond and illustrated by Dave McKean, has been chosen as the Liverpool Reads book for 2009. The city-wide initiative, coordinated by The Reader Organisation at the University of Liverpool, encourages the reading and sharing of one book each year. 20,000 copies of The Savage (published by Walker Books) will be given away across the fomer City of Culture from 15 September. 

(New Writing North, September Newsletter)

David is my favourite children's author and my 12 year old son Ben has become a fan too. He particularly loved The Savage and Skellig. Congratulations David!

My favourite book

My favourite book is Skellig by David Almond. It’s a wonderful children's book, and I’ve read it two or three times. I’m reading it to my son at the moment and he seems to be loving it as much as I do. It’s realistic, but fantastical, harsh but tender. David Almond’s writing is powerful. Not one word is redundant. The character of Skellig is so different from any other I’ve encountered. He’s so mysterious. The book is set in the North East of England and the characters have North East speech mannerisms, which I can identify with, but it’s Almond's attention to detail which makes me marvel. What's your favourite book? What makes it special?