It’s time to celebrate again!

I’m very excited to announce that Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur, my debut rhyming picture book for young children, has been nominated for the UK’s prestigious annual book award, The People’s Book Prize 2015/2016. HURRAY! (Or should I say ROARRR?!) 

The People’s Book Prize winners are voted for exclusively by the public. The national competition was set up to discover new talent and encourage reading. The founding patron was Dame Beryl Bainbridge, and the current patron is internationally renowned author Frederick Forsyth CBE, who has written multiple bestsellers including The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File. 

The general public can cast their votes from 1st June to 31st August 2015. To help Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur become a finalist, I would be thrilled if you could click on the logo below to register and vote. It only takes a few minutes, and is free!

Thanks for your support!

Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur is already a winner! 

Soon after the release of Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur in August 2014, I decided that it would be a good – as well as daunting – idea to enter my book into a book competition, to see what a wider audience thought of it, rather than just my own family and friends. I searched the internet and found The Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards website. The annual awards are run by the prize-winning author Edward Trayer, aka Billy Bob Buttons.

 

Nervously, I sent a PDF of the book plus JPEGs of the covers to Edward. To my delight, the book was accepted into the pre-school picture book category. In order to promote excellence in independent publishing, many books that are entered are turned down, often due to poor grammar, covers or formatting, and so I was pretty chuffed to be accepted.  

There are six categories in The Wishing Shelf Awards, including four children's categories.  The judges of the pre-school picture book cateogry are UK primary school children, which I think is fantastic.  The children, assisted by their teachers, assess the books and decide on the finalists, based on which books they enjoyed the most and why.  A smaller group of children then read the chosen top books and pick the gold, silver and bronze winners. The books are marked according to their editing, theme, style, cover and illustrations.

 

On 1^st March I found out that Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur had reached the finals of the pre-school picture book category. I was extremely happy – it was a fabulous feeling to know that my book was being enjoyed by children and their teachers.

On 1^st April, the winners of each category were announced. I was amazed, and over the moon, when I found out that Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur was the silver medal winner of the pre-school picture book category! As the silver medallist, I received lovely reviews on Amazon.co.uk and Goodreads from The Wishing Shelf Awards, a smart certificate, a silver medal logo (which I’ve added to the back cover of my book!) and a catchy quote: ‘Colourful! Exciting! Fabulous fun for kids’ to help promote my book.

 

The People’s Book Prize 2014/2015 awards ceremony for all finalists was broadcast on Sky News on Wednesday 27^th May, and I enjoyed watching it, thinking that perhaps I could be there next year! Well done to all the winners.

I am keeping my fingers and toes crossed that I get enough votes for Stonely’s Pet Dinosaur to reach the finals of The People’s Book Prize 2015/2016. It is my dream to wear a posh frock (which will be red, of course) and attend next year’s awards ceremony as a finalist, so please please support me and vote now!

Thank you.

Naomi x