Message from Dorothy

Hi! Thanks for visiting and supporting Kids Books UK. For various reasons I have decided not to continue posting to this blog. I will remove or update posts with out of date information, but leave posts which are still relevant. You will still be able to access Kids Books UK to read previous posts.
I am in the process of setting up a new blog, Storyadore  for anyone who loves reading and/or writing stories The blog will provide regular information, tips, prompts, competitions and more. I'll post a link to this here and on social networks, to my groups etc once it's live. I hope you'll adore Storyadore!

2008 Gateshead Children's Book Award Winners

The 2008 Gateshead Children's Book Award goes to Jeremy Strong for, Beware Killer Tomatoes. Second prize goes to Tommy Dobavand writing as B Strange for Too Ghoul For School:Terror in Cubicle Four. Red House Award Winner, Derek Landy came third with Skullduggery Pleasant.

The award not only recognises excellent children's fiction, but enhances reading, writing and I.T. skills in young people across Gateshead. A number of publishers send multiple copies to participating schools. Children read the books, and, after discussing them, they write reviews. The books are then rated the children post their comments online. In my opinion this beats Graded Readers and Reading Logs any day.

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?