Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices
Children’s Book Award 2011

Helen Limon has won the 2011 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children’s Book Award to Helen Limon for Om Shanti, Babe, a story about growing up, family and friendships that the judges described as ‘…fabulous . . . laugh-out-loud funny’.

dv 2011
The tale of teenage Cassia, who is forced to drop her preconceived ideas when she joins her mother on a business trip to south India, takes in fair trade and environmental issues alongside Cassia’s struggles to accept her mother’s new Indian partner, her spiky tussles with fashion-mad friend-to-be Priyanka and her crushes on pop star Jonny Gold and Dev, a boy she meets on a train.

Pictured: Helen Limon (2011 winner) Tom Avery (2010 winner – Too Much Trouble is published today) and Karon Alderman (2011 runner up)

The Award, was founded jointly by Frances Lincoln Limited and Seven Stories, the national centre for children’s books, in memory of Frances Lincoln (1945-2001) to encourage and promote diversity in children’s fiction.

The prize of £1,500 plus the option for Janetta Otter-Barry at Frances Lincoln Children’s Books to publish the novel is awarded to the best manuscript for eight to 12-year-olds that celebrates diversity in the widest possible sense.

Australian author Michelle Richardson received a Special Mention for Tek, a book about a young girl from the Aboriginal Australian Murrinh-Patha community who can communicate with the
ngepan, the spirits of the dead.

Tom Avery, was the winner of the award in 2010 also celebrated the publication on June 23rd of Too Much Trouble.

Sue Martin: Dolphin Booksellers the best in children’s books always on line.

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Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

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10 Coolest Libraries

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Libraries go beyond the possible, heading into the realms of the imagination in developing places for children and young people.

This is what we heard at Dolphin Booksellers from the 10 Coolest Libraries for Kids programme.
Watch a video, listen to a CD, play with a puppet, look at stuff under a microscope, or check out a discovery box!

At The Children’s Library Lab at The Journey Museum at Rapid City, South Dakota, U.S.A.

Instilling a love of reading at a young age can be an invaluable asset in the life of anyone. It helps them in the success at school and I’m sure there is some research somewhere that shows children who read early have a greater understanding of the world.

The Onlinecollege courses in the US is the place to find the information and we hope to work with them to bring information across the Big Pond.

In Princeton, New Jersey , Jennifer Greenstein Altmann writes about transforming Cotsen Children’s Library into a literary wonderland.

“Princeton New Jersey — Walk through the doors, and you enter a replica of a garden with five-foot animal topiaries made of fiberglass. There are stools shaped like daisies and a table with sunflowers growing out of it, with benches that look like hedges. Beyond the garden is a miniature house with a bookshelf that doubles as a staircase, which children can climb to reach a reading loft.”

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It’s a really interesting article and we were very excited about this as a development. What a place to sit and read? Just think what can happen?

Sue Martin

Dolphin Booksellers the best in children’s books always on line.

 

 

“Laura Bohn ’03, a volunteer at Cotsen Children’s Library, finds a cosy reading nook in the trunk of a 17-foot bonsai tree that soars over the new installation at the Cotsen gallery“.

(Images featured from the Coolest Libraries original article)

Bookmonitor is our news source for reviews and project information.

Books go Walkabout is our international books and literacy project - connecting authors and illustrators with children and young people around the globe.

We use Stripe to handle your e-purchase. Buy with confidence from BgW. Customer FAQ's here.