Yesterday, Children's Books Ireland announced their shortlist for Book of the year. The Book of the Year Awards are in the 22nd year and aim to "identify, honour and promote excellence in books for young people by Irish authors and illustrators". The nine shortlisted titles are as follows:
- A Greyhound of a Girl by Roddy Doyle
- Bruised by Siobhán Parkinson
- Into the Grey by Celine Kiernan
- Maitríóisce by Siobhán Parkinson
- My Dad is Ten Years Old and It's Pure Weird by Mark O'Sullivan
- Ó Chrann go Crann by Caitríona Hastings
- Stuck by Oliver Jeffers (reviewed here)
- The Butterfly Heart by Paula Leyden
- Will Gallows and the Snake-Bellied Troll by Derek Keilty
A couple of surprises here. I would have thought that Nicola Pierce's The Spirit of the Titanic (reviewed here) would be nominated. Dordán by Éilis Ní Dhuibhne would have been a good choice for the Irish language title, especially as Siobhán Parkinson has already been nominated for her novel Bruised. How and ever, there are some worthy choices on this list. I'll always be happy to see Celine Kiernan nominated for anything after reading her wonderful Moorehawke trilogy and Roddy Doyle's novel is certainly a well-spun yarn.
Hello just stopping by to say - nice blog - and what a lot of posts - you are *way* more productive than me ;-)
ReplyDeleteI have also realised that it was you who gave the excellent paper at Write Now - very refreshing perspective on teaching creative writing.
I had hoped to catch you afterwards to say how much I had enjoyed it but didn't manage so it's very nice to connect through good ol' fashioned (?) blogging!
Cat
Hi Cat,
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by. I'm delighted you enjoyed the paper too. It was such a great conference - my mind was buzzing with ideas for days! I was only sorry I had to rush off and get a flight back to Ireland so soon afterwards. I would have liked to stick around and talk to everyone some more. Hopefully we'll get to chat at the next one or via the blogs in the meantime.
Maeve