So ONE of my pieces of good news can finally be revealed – LOOKING AT THE STARS is on the longlist for the UK Literacy Association Book Award! I am really, really thrilled about this. Everyone likes to be nominated for an award, and for some writers it happens a lot. For other writers, hardly ever. Some of the people on the longlist with me have won LOADS of awards, and I am really so very excited that my book is listed alongside theirs.
The UKLA book award is decided by teachers – it’s the only book award in the UK to be run this way. It means that the judges are looking for books they can use in the class room; books that can begin discussions, be read aloud, inspire dramas or student writing. There are three age categories: 3-6, 7-11, 12-16, and Stars is listed in the 12-16 category alongside books by Patrick Ness, Marcus Sedgwick, Meg Rosoff and – a childhood hero of mine – Susan Cooper. SUSAN COOPER!!! You can imagine how proud I feel, seeing how overexcited I got when I met her last October…
The shortlist isn’t announced until March, but for now I’m just really honoured to be considered. You can read about the award here, and there’s also a link to download the longlist too. In my category there are 23 books, so some teachers are going to be very busy reading over the next few months! What a great job to have!
Congratulations also to my fellow Oxford author and pal Sally Nicholls, who’s listed for her FANTASTIC book CLOSE YOUR PRETTY EYES, which I reviewed here. Good luck to both of us! 🙂
Jo Cotterill 