THE TYRANNOSAUR’S FEATHERS wins at The Week Junior Book Awards
I’m delighted to report that The Tyrannosaur’s Feathers, written by me and Dr Adam S. Smith, illustrated by Stieven Van der Poorten and published by UCLan Publishing won the “Children’s Book of the Year: Animals and Nature” category of The Week Junior Book Awards.
The awards are only in their second year and ‘Animals & Nature’ was one of several new categories to be introduced this year. The category had a strong shortlist and I didn’t think our book would win it, so had not prepared anything to say in the event that it did …
… but I was very pleased to be proved wrong and find myself having to improvise!
Lovely words during the acceptance speech for Children's Book of the Year : Animal & Nature 🥲#TWJBookAwards pic.twitter.com/Imi4iTuZxO
— Bobby Seagull (@Bobby_Seagull) September 30, 2024
Here’s what the judges had to say about the book.
“There are lots of books about dinosaurs, but none of them are quite like this one. “Playful”, “smart”, “imaginative” and “funny” are among the words our judges used to describe its clever combination of facts, research and recent findings, which explain why T. rex’s image has had a major makeover.”
“Animals & Nature” was one of 14 categories to recieve an award. I was very impressed with the number of awards given to non-fiction books, which often go unrecognised by children’s book awards. Here’s a video showing the winning books in each category.
That’s a wrap for The Week Junior Book Awards 2024! Congratulations to all the winners and many thanks to all our amazing sponsors and partners, our judges and of course to all the voters!@thebookseller @WHSmith @lovereadingkids @PublishipGroup @WorldBookDayUK pic.twitter.com/fAi4U25BXv
— The Week Junior (@theweekjunior) September 30, 2024
Here’s a photo of all the winning authors and illustrators clutching their trophies.
And here’s me celebrating afterwards with the book’s designer Becky Chilcott, Publisher Hazel Holmes and my agent Caroline Walsh.
My co-author palaeontologist and museum curator Adam Smith was unable to attend the ceremony, but I presented him with the trophy later in the week. Here’s Adam proudly displaying it with his pet T.rex Titus in the new, soon to be opened, Discovering Dinosaurs gallery at Nottingham Natural History Museum.
Following on from the awards, I will be doing a The Tyrannosaur’s Feathers event at The Week Junior Book Festival at the Barbican Centre on Tuesday 29 October 2024 (this coming half-term). Come along to find out why T.rex has undergone such a dramatic makeover since it was first discovered. Then see if you can win a signed copy of the book by taking part in The Latest Evidence Knockout Quiz game.
You can order The Tyrannosaur’s Feathers from your local book shop or from Amazon using the sales links below.
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