Townsend’s ‘Nevermoor’ wins locally and in the UK

Jessica Townsend’s Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow (Lothian) has been named Book of the Year at the 2018 Indie Book Awards. Nevermoor, which also took out the children’s category of the awards, is the first children’s title to win the overall award in the 10-year history of the Indie Book Awards, which are chosen by independent booksellers to reward and promote excellence in Australian writing. The win came after Townsend’s novel won the younger readers category of the 2018 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, with the UK retailer describing the Queensland writer’s debut as ‘one of the most inventive fantasy novels for children of recent years’.

In other awards news, the shortlists for Australia’s best-known children’s book awards—the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book of the Year Awards—have been announced. In the case of this award, being shortlisted is akin to winning any other award. You can find the shortlists here. The winners will be announced on 17 August. And Will Kostakis’ YA novel The Sidekicks (Penguin) has won the 2018 Ena Noël Award, a biennial prize open to Australian creators under the age of 35, administered by the Australian branch of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) to encourage emerging writers and illustrators.

Category: Think Junior awards