Heart Of Hawick Childrens Book Award

Authors write to us! 2011 Sheryl Webster

Hello to everyone.

Unfortunately, I cannot be there with you all today - and just wanted to say a big ‘thank you’ for including ‘What Small Rabbit Heard’ within your Picture Book Award category.

It means an awful lot to me. The story was written following a windy walk that myself and my husband went on with our children. The children had great fun pretending to mis-hear what we were saying to them, and got up to lots of mischief – just like Small Rabbit.

I guess the Mums and Dads amongst you would know this as ‘selective hearing!’

Thank you to all the children that have been reading the books nominated for the award ceremony, and I hope Small Rabbit made you smile.

Keep reading!

With my best wishes,

Sheryl Webster

Authors write to us! 2011 Nicola Killen

Nicola Killen, Not Me

Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award Ceremony

I'm sorry that I can't make it to your award ceremony today - I would love to be in Hawick with you but I'm on holiday with friends this week. Depending on the weather we may currently be
a) building sandcastles and playing football on the beach or
b) huddling together in a bus shelter trying to avoid the pouring rain!

Most of the ideas for my stories come from life experiences and Not Me! is no exception. A group of us were at the fair and my friend, Laura, bought a toffee apple.   She was struggling to eat it so tried to throw it in the bin.....the apple flew off in the wrong direction and hit a man on the leg! (I should point out at this stage that the man wasn't hurt at all). Anyway, he turned round to see Laura still holding the toffee apple stick and looking very guilty. "It wasn't me!" she blurted out. This got me thinking about the antics a group of children could get up to while denying any involvement....and Not Me! was born.

I was so happy when I heard that my story had been shortlisted for your picturebook award - I hope you've all had as much fun reading it as I had writing it! And I'm sure, like the children at the end of the book, you always clean and tidy up your own mess!

Nicola Killen

Authors write to us! 2011 AG Taylor

Andrew Taylor, Meteorite Strike

"I was thrilled when I heard that I'd been shortlisted for The Heart of Hawick award, especially because the winner is judged by kids, who are the real audience for the book. The most important thing to any writer is that his or her stories are being read, so I'd like to thank everyone who has taken the time to pick up Meteorite Strike. I hope you enjoyed it. Although I can't be at the ceremony, I'm thinking of you all as I shiver through the cold Australian winter (it sometimes gets as low as 15 degrees celsius here, which is pretty chilly, I'm sure you'll agree). I hope you all have a fantastic time celebrating books and reading today - a truly great thing to do. Once again, thanks to the organisers of the award, the teachers involved and all the kids who have read the book - being nominated really means a lot to me. Very best wishes, Andrew."

Authors write to us! 2011 Garrett Carr

Garrett Carr, The Badness of Ballydog

Dear Hawick

The Badness of Ballydog is my first book and I am very excited to have been nominated for your award. I think it is a great idea that the winner is chosen by readers’ votes and that you have a competition for reviews too. I am sure Hawick is nothing like Ballydog. I know this because you obviously like reading. The people in Ballydog don’t read books. Or rather, they don’t read any good books.

Inspired by the wonderful Heart of Hawick I attempted to run a similar competition in Ballydog’s school. I used the same categories that you use with your award. But Ballydog kids are not like Hawick kids. I was horrified by the shortlist that emerged. They chose books like; “Shoplifting for Fun and Profit” and “The Beginners Guide to Selling Unwanted Relatives into Slavery,” and “The Bumper Book of Cruel Jokes.”

The Children’s Review Award went to Sludge Carson for his review of “The Beginners Guide to Selling Unwanted Relatives into Slavery.” I can’t repeat the entire review here as it is too ghastly and today should be enjoyable. But I will quote the conclusion of Carson’s review. He writes: “This book is brilliant. With what I learned I was able to get 25 pounds for Auntie Maggie. My parents let me keep half the money. I sold her to Shell Oil who now dangle her from a rubber strap and make her pick the barnacles from the bottoms of all their oil tankers. She moans and complains but that was all she ever did anyway. The best part is this; now I have my own room.”

The Best Picture Book Award went to a guidebook published by the World Health Organisation. It is a field guide to rare and grotesque diseases and is normally only available to doctors. It features many horrible photographs of people with boils, painful bulges and huge blisters on their heads. The young reviewers in Ballydog called this picture book “Very entertaining,” “Uplifting” and “frequently hilarious.”

So now you see what I have to deal with.

Being serious for a moment, what is the problem with the people of Ballydog? Well, they have no empathy. They are not able to understand what it is like to be anybody else. The have no idea how someone else might feel about anything. It is not just that they do not care about anyone else, they are not able to care about anyone else. This absence also effects them the other way around. The people in Ballydog are not able to imagine that anyone might understand them. Each of them feels isolated. The problem with the people of Ballydog is that, even through they live close together, each of them is completely alone.

I believe the best way to learn the skill of empathy is through reading. With a book you step in to another person’s shoes. Reading exercises the empathy muscle. You can find out what it might be like to be an alien from another planet, a soldier in a faraway country, or a girl who lived two hundred years ago. Read five books and you have lived five lives, just for a little while.

Thank you again for putting me on your list of five shortlisted books. I am very sorry that I cannot be there. My congratulations to the winners and I hope you enjoy your day.

Best wishes
Garrett

Authors write to us! 2011 Douglas Bruton

Douglas Bruton, The Chess Piece Magician

I am thrilled to have been nominated for this award. I have to pinch myself sometimes, thinking that my book is on bookshelves in places that are not my home. I am overwhelmed at the thought that children that are not my own children are reading my story and enjoying what was once just something in my head. I am pinching myself now. I am so very sorry that my duties as a teacher prevent me from attending the award ceremony in Hawick today, for I should like to have been able to say in person a sincere thank you to everyone who has read 'The Chess Piece Magician' this year.

I send my very best wishes to everyone connected with The Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award and to all the children of Hawick who are doing such a good job of promoting reading. I also send my congratulations to all the other nominees on the shortlist and of course my heartfelt best congratulations to this year's winner.

Authors write to us! 2011 Katie Davies

Katie Davies, The Great Hamster Massacre

“Hello Hawick! Sorry I can’t be with you today. I’m really excited to be shortlisted for the Heart of Hawick Children’s Book Award, especially as The Great Hamster Massacre was my first book. Thank you all for choosing it as one of your favourites and have a great time today!”

2011 Winning Children's Book Review

St Margaret's RC Primary School won the Children's Book Review competition judged by author Oliver Eade, with this review of 'Wilma Tenderfoot and the Case of the Frozen Hearts'.

'Wilma Tenderfoot and the Case of the Frozen Hearts' By Emma Kennedy

This is a mystery book and there are strange things happening on Cooper Island: missing stones, murders and a little girl who just wants to be a detective and follow her dreams. Detective P. Goodman could make Wilma's dreams come true by making her his apprentice or will he just tell her to leave him alone? Wilma still just doesn't give up! She follows him everywhere and actually helps him solve the case and all with an order book and a magnifying glass, but they are very special in the hands of one special little girl!

The main characters are Wilma Tenderfoot, Theodore. P. Goodman and Inspector Lemone. Wilma is a very adventurous girl, she is an orphan and her hero is Detective Theodore. P. Goodman. He lives with his housekeeper Mrs Speckle. He is Cooper Island's finest detective and has solved lots of cases. Inspector Lemone has a very large crush on Mrs Speckle, but he doesn't show it. He loves corn crumble biscuits and is quite fat, but he doesn't mind he is very kind and caring and he cares a lot for Wilma.

My favourite part was when Wilma and Pickle sneak and hide in potato sacks so she could get to the lowside of Cooper Island to catch the evil villain Barbu'D'Anvers.

I would definitely recommend this book to a friend because it is very funny, mysterious and exciting. I think someone who likes mysteries would like this book.

'Meteorite Strike' by A G Taylor (2011)

Winner of the Heart of Hawick Children's Book Award 2011!

Sarah and Robert are sure their number is up when their aeroplane crashes over the Australian desert. But this is no ordinary air disaster. A meteorite strike has impacted Earth, bringing with it a deadly alien disease. Thousands fall victim to the virus, falling into a deep coma. Luckily, Robert and Sarah appear to be unaffected - until they begin to exhibit some extraordinary psychic side-effects. This quickly makes them a target for HIDRA, a rogue international agency determined to experiment on them like lab rats in an attempt to control their superpowers. Before long, the children are captured in HIDRA's secret desert HQ, a prison for superhuman kids who can control fire, create storms and tear steel with their minds. This new generation of superheroes must join forces if they are to escape HIDRA. But what kind of world awaits them outside?

 

Published by Usborne Publishing Ltd.

AG Taylor’s website.

'The Big Bottom Hunt' by Lari Don (2011)

Winner of the Heart of Hawick Children's Picture Book Award 2011!

Sandy and Ella are out playing on the beach one day when they spot something sparkling by the jaggy rocks. They run over to see what it is, and find a telescope that someone has left behind. But how will they find the owner? Then they see a funny shape in the sand - and realise it's a bottom print! They run back home for their art kit and trace the print. Then the big bottom hunt begins, as they ask each villager in turn, 'Is this your bottom?' A delightful and very funny story from Edinburgh writer and storyteller Lari Don, illustrated with great charm by up-and-coming illustrator Gabby Grant.

www.laridon.co.uk                Published by Floris

‘The Chess Piece Magician’ by Douglas Bruton (2011)

When Corrie's family returns to Uig Bay on the Isle of Lewis for yet another miserable summer holiday, he has no idea of the incredible adventure that lies ahead. He finds a strange figurine on a windswept beach, which looks very like the ancient chess pieces found there centuries ago ...but this one has a magician's staff. Corrie makes friends with local girl, Kat, who tells him the island's legends - of a terrible sea serpent who summoned up never-ending winter, and of a powerful magician who finally banished him. When Corrie hears a voice in the night and the strange little figure starts to glow, he finds himself drawn into an incredible battle between good and evil. Douglas Bruton's brilliant first novel tells a fictional story behind the famed Lewis chessmen, which date from the 12th century and were found in Uig Bay in the 1830s. This gripping fantasy adventure will have both boys and girls on the edge of their seats.

About the Author
Douglas Bruton is an English teacher who lives just outside Edinburgh. He read English and Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, before studying at Edinburgh College of Art. He has been writing ever since and has won several prizes for short stories.

Published by Floris Books.