Alligator's Mouth Award for Illustrated Fiction 2020

In March this local bookshop announced its longlist of 10 books for the award for illustrated fiction in the 6-9 years range.  We formed a reading panel of children from Years 2 to 4 to read alongside the award. Despite the challenges of school closure, each of us read a few of the books (46 in total), discussed our thoughts online and in bubbles, rated the books and picked a winner ( or 2)!  

AND THE WINNERS ARE:

 King Coo & the Curse of the Mummy's Gold - Adam Stower.

AND 

Amelia Fang & the Half Moon Holiday - Lauren Ellen Anderson

This was Faye's favourite too.

We also picked 3 Runners Up

Kitty & the Moonlight Rescue- Paula Harrison & illustrator Jenny Lovlie

Hotel Flamingo - Alex Milway

 The Twitches Meet a Puppy - Hayley Scott - illustrator Pippa Curnick

Read our reviews & thoughts of all 10 books below and look out for them in the Libraries, so you can see what you think of them for yourself!

Lily has read and reviewed The Adventures of Harry Stephenson written & illustrated by Ali Pye.   

Mario has read it too, and awarded the book 5* This is what he says:

The illustration of the book is cute and they are really interesting to look at! The story was funny and exciting! Lots of action! This book it very easy to read and definitely recommend it for 5-8 age group. Very enjoyable to read! I will read more books from this author! 

Dora read Kitty & The Moonlight Rescue by Paula Harrison & Jenny Lovlie and noted that using just 3 colours in the illustrations made the ginger cats stand out. She also said she thought children of her age would enjoy it.

Darius gave The Twitches Meet a Puppy by Hayley Scott & Pippa Curnick 5 stars and in particular appreciated how good the illustrations of the puppy were.

Our latest reader is Lily, read her great review below. It sounds like a series we should think about for the library.

Bea read Amelia Fang & the Half Moon Holiday by Laura Ellen Andersen which she said was really funny. She recommended that we get some more of this series for the library.

Max liked the character of Dave the unicorn in the The Naughtiest Unicorn by Pip Bird. I agree Dave makes the book, he's hilarious. Max also mentioned he thought the unicorn illustrations were better than the ones of people.

Mario has read Dave Pigeon - Royal Coo (I have too!) It's very funny. Dave - is proving popular with other readers too and as this is one of a series, so we'll be looking our for more! Author Swapna Haddow @SwapnaHaddow says a "big hello to all your brilliant readers" 

Several of us have read King Coo & the Curse of the Mummy's Gold by Adam Stower, including Lemar. King Coo is a brilliant creation. Max has read it recently too and here is his review. "King Coo was the funniest character in the book because even though she was a girl, she was called King and she also had a beard! In the story she tricks criminals into thinking there is a silly curse put onto the mummy's gold to prevent them from stealing it. There is a lot of behind the scenes action which gives you further information about the story. It made me laugh and was a hilarious read. I would choose to read a book by the same author again.I would definitely recommend this to people who have read Night of the Living Ted or King Flashypants." 

Our latest reviewer is Lily - and here's what she thought. King Coo does seem to be very popular with everyone who has read it.

Eva read Sophie Takes to the Sky by Katherine Woodfine  & Briony May Smith and Lily has too - here is her review. Sounds like an interesting book!  And here's Mario who is reading it at the moment

 Bea has read Two Sides by Polly Ho-Yen, illustrated by Binny Talib and also reviewed it for us. 

Two Sides I like Two Sides because it shows how we are all different and that we have TWO SIDES of emotions. For me the Two Sides book scores 8 out of 10. It also shows that sometimes we have arguments and disagreements 😎😍😊😆.

And she read Hotel Flamingo written and illustrated by Alex Milway. It's got one of those covers that makes you want to pick it up. Bea seems to have been impressed with the story too. 

Thank you to our panel for their reviews, comments and pictures, whether your contribution and enthusiasm. I'll be looking for other opportunities for reading panels in future. In the meantime,   Happy reading!