Take it as read books are not child's play
Friday April 26 2002
Celia Keenan, chair of the judging panel for the €6,400 Bisto Children's Book of the Year Awards, also lambasted poor proof-reading which led to frequent errors in both Irish and English language publications.
She made the two-pronged attack as she announced the shortlist for the prestigious 2002 competition at The Irish Writers Centre in Dublin.
"There is a danger that publishers will only publish books that might just serve the classroom market, and might not publish the more difficult books," she said. "It's the quirky, interesting, challenging and maybe troublesome books that teachers might not immediately get to grips with which we want to encourage."
Her comments were greeted with nods of approval from the assembled audience in Parnell Square, which included a number of the writers shortlisted and their publishers.
The shortlist of authors who had passed Ms Keenan's stringent checks included last year's winner Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick. Having struck lucky in 2001 with 'Izzy and Skunk', she is in the running with 'I'm a Tiger Too!'
Eoin Colfer was also tipped for success, with his 'Artemis Fowl', which has already earned him the British Book Awards' and WH Smith's Children's Book of the Year. The other books, which face the final verdict on May 30, included: 'Adam's Starling', by Gillian Perdue; 'The Beguilers', by Kate Thomson; 'Caught on a Train', by Carlo Gebler; 'Give it to Joe!', by Martin Waddell; 'Ignis', by PJ Lynch Illu; 'An Sclabhai', by Colman O Raghallaigh; 'The Stretford Enders Away', by Trevor J Colgan and 'This Will Take Forever', by Austin McQuinn.
- Helen Bruce
