Difference between revisions of "Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2011"

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Following hot on the footsteps of [[Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2010|last year's]] winner, [[Ghost Hunter by Michelle Paver]], comes another wonderful selection of children's books in the 2011 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
 
 
Following hot on the footsteps of [[Guardian Children's Fiction Prize 2010|last year's]] winner, [[Ghosthunter by Michelle Paver]], comes another wonderful selection of children's books in the 2011 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.
 
  
 
'''The Longlist'''
 
'''The Longlist'''
  
{{topten
+
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Lissa Evans
 
|author=Lissa Evans
 
|title=Small Change for Stuart
 
|title=Small Change for Stuart
Line 13: Line 10:
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Poor Stuart Horten is rather small for his age.  Unfortunately for him, if you put his initial with his surname it becomes 'shorten', which is just asking for trouble.  Still, he's happy and has lots of friends.  Or, at least, he does until his parents move house and he finds himself living in a strange town (his father's hometown) in the school holidays, looking at the prospect of a long, boring and lonely summer ahead of him.  He soon discovers, however, that there is a mystery surrounding his family's history in the town, and it looks as though Stuart might just be the one to uncover what really happened...
 
|summary=Poor Stuart Horten is rather small for his age.  Unfortunately for him, if you put his initial with his surname it becomes 'shorten', which is just asking for trouble.  Still, he's happy and has lots of friends.  Or, at least, he does until his parents move house and he finds himself living in a strange town (his father's hometown) in the school holidays, looking at the prospect of a long, boring and lonely summer ahead of him.  He soon discovers, however, that there is a mystery surrounding his family's history in the town, and it looks as though Stuart might just be the one to uncover what really happened...
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561800X</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=038561800X
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{topten
+
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Frances Hardinge
 
|author=Frances Hardinge
 
|title=Twilight Robbery
 
|title=Twilight Robbery
Line 22: Line 19:
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Mosca and her companions will be familiar to readers of ''Fly By Night'', but it is in no way necessary to have read the first volume of her adventures to thoroughly enjoy this book. She is a twelve-year-old orphan, who travels the roads with her homicidal goose, and a rather shifty poet called, charmingly, Eponymous Clent. We meet them just after a particularly energetic display of destruction by the said goose: Eponymous has been thrown into jail until he can pay for the damage, and Mosca is trying to raise some cash by reading aloud an old newspaper to illiterate townsfolk.
 
|summary=Mosca and her companions will be familiar to readers of ''Fly By Night'', but it is in no way necessary to have read the first volume of her adventures to thoroughly enjoy this book. She is a twelve-year-old orphan, who travels the roads with her homicidal goose, and a rather shifty poet called, charmingly, Eponymous Clent. We meet them just after a particularly energetic display of destruction by the said goose: Eponymous has been thrown into jail until he can pay for the damage, and Mosca is trying to raise some cash by reading aloud an old newspaper to illiterate townsfolk.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405055391</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1405055391
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{topten
+
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Saci Lloyd
 
|author=Saci Lloyd
 
|title=Momentum
 
|title=Momentum
Line 31: Line 28:
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=London, 2030. Energy wars are consuming the globe now peak oil is past. Britain creaks on with ever-declining influence and is now partly dependent on aid from China. The gap between rich and poor is now so great that the poor (the Outsiders) live in dreadful slums while the rich (the Citizens) spend most of their time plugged into the net, experiencing life as a fantasy. Civil unrest is springing up, only to be ruthlessly put down by the Kossacks, the new security force.
 
|summary=London, 2030. Energy wars are consuming the globe now peak oil is past. Britain creaks on with ever-declining influence and is now partly dependent on aid from China. The gap between rich and poor is now so great that the poor (the Outsiders) live in dreadful slums while the rich (the Citizens) spend most of their time plugged into the net, experiencing life as a fantasy. Civil unrest is springing up, only to be ruthlessly put down by the Kossacks, the new security force.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444900811</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1444900811
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{topten
+
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Simon Mason
 
|author=Simon Mason
 
|title=Moon Pie
 
|title=Moon Pie
Line 42: Line 39:
  
 
Poor Martha. She's only eleven and she's so used to being the person who copes that it's become second nature to her. To keep herself focused, she writes lists.
 
Poor Martha. She's only eleven and she's so used to being the person who copes that it's become second nature to her. To keep herself focused, she writes lists.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0385618514</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0385618514
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{topten
+
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Andy Mulligan
 
|author=Andy Mulligan
 
|title=Return to Ribblestrop
 
|title=Return to Ribblestrop
Line 51: Line 48:
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
 
|summary=Before they even get back to Ribblestrop, Millie and her friends singularly or together hitchhike, pay their bus drivers the fare in fags, survive a car crash, set fire to a hotel, survive being eaten by a lion and other big cats, and encourage a Brazilian with a criminal record to take his unemployed circus animals to Ribblestrop. And what is Ribblestrop, you may ask?
 
|summary=Before they even get back to Ribblestrop, Millie and her friends singularly or together hitchhike, pay their bus drivers the fare in fags, survive a car crash, set fire to a hotel, survive being eaten by a lion and other big cats, and encourage a Brazilian with a criminal record to take his unemployed circus animals to Ribblestrop. And what is Ribblestrop, you may ask?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847388124</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1847388124
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{topten
+
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Annabel Pitcher
 
|author=Annabel Pitcher
 
|title=My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece
 
|title=My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece
Line 60: Line 57:
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|summary=Ten-year-old Jamie Matthews has moved to the Lake District because his dad says they need a Fresh Start. With him are his sister Jas, who doesn't eat much, is painfully thin, and who has multiple piercings and hair dyed bright pink, his father, who should be starting a new job on a building site, but who is too hungover to make it to breakfast, let alone into his car and out to work, and his cat, Roger, who relishes the new hunting opportunities and who is the only one of the foursome to be completely happy in his new surroundings.
 
|summary=Ten-year-old Jamie Matthews has moved to the Lake District because his dad says they need a Fresh Start. With him are his sister Jas, who doesn't eat much, is painfully thin, and who has multiple piercings and hair dyed bright pink, his father, who should be starting a new job on a building site, but who is too hungover to make it to breakfast, let alone into his car and out to work, and his cat, Roger, who relishes the new hunting opportunities and who is the only one of the foursome to be completely happy in his new surroundings.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444001833</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=1780620292
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{topten
+
{{Frontpage
 
|author=Andy Stanton
 
|author=Andy Stanton
 
|title=Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout
 
|title=Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout
 
|rating=5
 
|rating=5
 
|genre=Confident Readers
 
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Mr Gum is out for revenge.  So often has he tried to get the best of Lamonic Bibber, the town our heroes live in, and so often he has failed.  This time, however, he is well prepared.  He has a secret hideout (the clue was in the title), he has Billy William the Third with him - his accomplice who's stupid and evil enough to laugh at a person getting their eyebrows burnt off, before realising said person is himself, and he has a ready-made supply of stinky, rotting meat and animal parts to help in his vengeance.  Just what all this adds up to is well worth the wait in the eighth entry in this expanding series of books.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1405253274</amazonuk>
+
|summary=Mr Gum is out for revenge.  So often has he tried to get the best of Lamonic Bibber, the town our heroes live in, and so often he has failed.  This time, however, he is well prepared.  He has a secret hideout (the clue was in the title), he has Billy William the Third with him - his accomplice who's stupid and evil enough to laugh at a person getting their eyebrows burnt off, before realising said person is himself, and he has a ready-made supply of stinky, rotting meat and animal parts to help in his vengeance.  Just what all this adds up to is well worth the wait in the eighth entry in this expanding series of books.|isbn=1405253274
 
}}
 
}}
  
{{topten
+
{{Frontpage
 
|author=David Almond
 
|author=David Almond
 
|title=My Name Is Mina
 
|title=My Name Is Mina
|rating=unreviewed
+
|rating=4.5
 
|genre=Teens
 
|genre=Teens
|summary=There's an empty notebook lying on the table in the moonlight. It's been there for an age. I keep on saying that I'll write a journal. So I'll start right here, right now. I open the book and write the very first words: My name is Mina and I love the night. Then what shall I write? I can't just write that this happened then this happened then this happened to boring infinitum. I'll let my journal grow just like the mind does, just like a tree or a beast does, just like life does. Why should a book tell a tale in a dull straight line?
+
|summary=We first Mina in [[Skellig by David Almond|Skellig]]. A homeschooled, William Blake-loving, slightly precious child, she arrived in Michael's life with not a little whiff of the culture shock about her. Now, we can find out what really makes Mina tick as we read through her journal. Mina is full of contradictions. She likes to be different, individual, but she doesn't like being a misfit. She wants friends but she doesn't know how to make them or to keep them. She is both reflective and impulsive. Her diary entries reflect her capricious nature. Sometimes they are upbeat. Sometimes they are sad. They come in big letters and little letters, in lots of words and in few words, in poems and in prose. Sometimes they're completely blank.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0340997257</amazonuk>
+
|isbn=0340997265
 
}}
 
}}
  

Latest revision as of 09:59, 1 February 2024

Following hot on the footsteps of last year's winner, Ghost Hunter by Michelle Paver, comes another wonderful selection of children's books in the 2011 Guardian Children's Fiction Prize.

The Longlist

038561800X.jpg

Review of

Small Change for Stuart by Lissa Evans

4.5star.jpg Confident Readers

Poor Stuart Horten is rather small for his age. Unfortunately for him, if you put his initial with his surname it becomes 'shorten', which is just asking for trouble. Still, he's happy and has lots of friends. Or, at least, he does until his parents move house and he finds himself living in a strange town (his father's hometown) in the school holidays, looking at the prospect of a long, boring and lonely summer ahead of him. He soon discovers, however, that there is a mystery surrounding his family's history in the town, and it looks as though Stuart might just be the one to uncover what really happened... Full Review

1405055391.jpg

Review of

Twilight Robbery by Frances Hardinge

5star.jpg Teens

Mosca and her companions will be familiar to readers of Fly By Night, but it is in no way necessary to have read the first volume of her adventures to thoroughly enjoy this book. She is a twelve-year-old orphan, who travels the roads with her homicidal goose, and a rather shifty poet called, charmingly, Eponymous Clent. We meet them just after a particularly energetic display of destruction by the said goose: Eponymous has been thrown into jail until he can pay for the damage, and Mosca is trying to raise some cash by reading aloud an old newspaper to illiterate townsfolk. Full Review

1444900811.jpg

Review of

Momentum by Saci Lloyd

4.5star.jpg Teens

London, 2030. Energy wars are consuming the globe now peak oil is past. Britain creaks on with ever-declining influence and is now partly dependent on aid from China. The gap between rich and poor is now so great that the poor (the Outsiders) live in dreadful slums while the rich (the Citizens) spend most of their time plugged into the net, experiencing life as a fantasy. Civil unrest is springing up, only to be ruthlessly put down by the Kossacks, the new security force. Full Review

0385618514.jpg

Review of

Moon Pie by Simon Mason

5star.jpg Confident Readers

When I'm older, she thought, I'll remember this midnight picnic as a good thing. I'll forget that I was scared of the dark and that Dad was strange. I'll remember the candles in the grass, like flowers made out of flame, and Tug dreaming of pie, and Dad telling me he loves me.

Poor Martha. She's only eleven and she's so used to being the person who copes that it's become second nature to her. To keep herself focused, she writes lists. Full Review

1847388124.jpg

Review of

Return to Ribblestrop by Andy Mulligan

4.5star.jpg Teens

Before they even get back to Ribblestrop, Millie and her friends singularly or together hitchhike, pay their bus drivers the fare in fags, survive a car crash, set fire to a hotel, survive being eaten by a lion and other big cats, and encourage a Brazilian with a criminal record to take his unemployed circus animals to Ribblestrop. And what is Ribblestrop, you may ask? Full Review

1780620292.jpg

Review of

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Ten-year-old Jamie Matthews has moved to the Lake District because his dad says they need a Fresh Start. With him are his sister Jas, who doesn't eat much, is painfully thin, and who has multiple piercings and hair dyed bright pink, his father, who should be starting a new job on a building site, but who is too hungover to make it to breakfast, let alone into his car and out to work, and his cat, Roger, who relishes the new hunting opportunities and who is the only one of the foursome to be completely happy in his new surroundings. Full Review

1405253274.jpg

Review of

Mr Gum and the Secret Hideout by Andy Stanton

5star.jpg Confident Readers

Mr Gum is out for revenge. So often has he tried to get the best of Lamonic Bibber, the town our heroes live in, and so often he has failed. This time, however, he is well prepared. He has a secret hideout (the clue was in the title), he has Billy William the Third with him - his accomplice who's stupid and evil enough to laugh at a person getting their eyebrows burnt off, before realising said person is himself, and he has a ready-made supply of stinky, rotting meat and animal parts to help in his vengeance. Just what all this adds up to is well worth the wait in the eighth entry in this expanding series of books. Full Review

0340997265.jpg

Review of

My Name Is Mina by David Almond

4.5star.jpg Teens

We first Mina in Skellig. A homeschooled, William Blake-loving, slightly precious child, she arrived in Michael's life with not a little whiff of the culture shock about her. Now, we can find out what really makes Mina tick as we read through her journal. Mina is full of contradictions. She likes to be different, individual, but she doesn't like being a misfit. She wants friends but she doesn't know how to make them or to keep them. She is both reflective and impulsive. Her diary entries reflect her capricious nature. Sometimes they are upbeat. Sometimes they are sad. They come in big letters and little letters, in lots of words and in few words, in poems and in prose. Sometimes they're completely blank. Full Review

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