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Eleanor Farjeon Award 2008

November 28, 2008

On Wednesday night I wandered off to the Unicorn Theatre at London Bridge (which has an actual, ENORMOUS unicorn in the foyer, Linda Chapman would be proud) to see the annual Eleanor Farjeon award, which celebrates people whose commitment and contribution to the world of children’s books is deemed to be outstanding.

 

These are the people who dedicate themselves to children’s books and reading. People who work tirelessly to ensure that children everywhere discover the delights of reading and encourage a love of books that will last a lifetime.

The nominees were Chris Brown, The Children’s Books History Society, Elizabeth Hammill and Mary Briggs, joint founders of Seven Stories, Michael Morpurgo and David Wood, all of whom are recognised as unsung heroes who contribute so much to every aspect of children’s books.

Before the winner made their speech, our very own Meg Rosoff (who writes for our older readers) spoke about work and real work and how, as a writer, she often finds herself whiling away the day drinking tea or walking her dogs or playing on the internet, anything to avoid actually settling down to write. This, she pointed out, is not real work. Real work is done by the kind of people who are nominated each year for this award. (Although without our writers we wouldn’t have amazing books to read, so of course we like to celebrate them too).

And now for the winner . . . cue drumroll . . . Chris Brown is the winner of the Eleanor Farjeon Award 2008, a man who spent 23 years as a teacher and a primary head (which deserves an award in itself), and has been the Reviews Editor for School Librarian magazine for 10 years! Chris is very well known for getting children and books together and in his acceptance speech he recalled his years working with children and books with great enthusiasm, humour and a big smile.

Chris finished by reading an Eleanor Farjeon story set to violin music. It was simply beautiful and on behalf of Puffin we’d like to say a great big well done to Chris and also an enormous thank you to all of the other nominees.

Sarah Kettle
Puffin Creative Executive

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