‘Missing Marvin’ wins Children’s Peace Literature Award

Sue deGennaro’s picture book Missing Marvin (Scholastic) has won this year’s Children’s Peace Literature Award.

Convener of the judging panel Kate Prescott described Missing Marvin as a funny and gentle picture book showing how to address bullying and conflict in a peaceful way.

The biennial award, worth $3000, is presented by Psychologists for Peace, a South Australian-based interest group of the Australian Psychological Society, to a book which ‘encourages the peaceful resolution of conflict’ or ‘promotes peace at the global, local or interpersonal level’.

Missing Marvin was selected from a shortlist of four books in the junior reader category compiled by a panel of psychologists and children’s literature experts. Other junior readers titles shortlisted for the award this year are: The Adventures of Catvinkle (Elliot Perlman, Puffin), Dream Riders: Frankie (Laura Bloom & Jesse Blackadder, Walker Books) and Winston and the Wondrous Wooba Gymnastics Team (Tamsin Janu, Scholastic).

This year there was no shortlist or winner for older readers, due to the judges agreeing that no entry in the older readers category met all the criteria of the award.

For more information about the Children’s Peace Literature Award, see the Australian Psychological Society website here.

Category: Awards Junior Local news