From: Denise I. Matulka <dimatulka>
Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2002 15:25:24 +0800

Kids' First: Children's Writer Pullman Wins Whitbread Prize

Philip Pullman is the first children's author to win the Whitbread Book of the Year award, for The Amber Spyglass (Scholastic), the third part of his epic trilogy His Dark Materials.

Pullman also won Whitbread Children's Award, which put him in the running for the Book of the Year Award. His competition for the Book of the Year Award consisted of the winners of Whitbread's Novel Award, Poetry Award, Biography Award and First Novel Award. The awards were announced Tuesday evening in London.

Chairman of the judges Jon Snow said, "Pullman is in a league of his own. This is indeed a remarkable moment when a children's book has swept the board." He admitted that there had originally been doubts about the
?25,000 prize going to a children's book, but the overwhelming quality of Pullman's story swayed the jury.

In previous years, children's books have failed to win the overall prize--most notably when J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was hotly tipped but lost out to Seamus Heaney's Beowulf. Pullman himself has long argued that children's books could--and should-? judged on equal terms with their adult counterparts, a point he emphasized on receiving the award. "I'm thrilled to win, but winning or not winning is not the point," he said. "The point is that children's books are seen to be on the same level as the other categories--where they belong."
Received on Thu 24 Jan 2002 01:25:24 AM CST