Children’s Book Award Confident Readers Blog Tour Round-up

Over the past couple of weeks, we have enjoyed reading posts from three more fantastic children’s book bloggers to help us celebrate the books in our Confident Readers category.

Don’t worry if you missed any of them as we have put together a selection of the best bits from each.

Rachel from Get Kids Into Books started with a review and who told us all about book number 1;

D-Day Dog

Written by Tom Palmer

Published by Barrington Stoke

Rachel began by telling us more about the story;

D-Day Dog is the story of war-mad 11-year old Jack. Jack loves playing war games on his PlayStation. He’s fascinated by war and  reveres soldiers and war heroes. He’s also extremely proud of his dad, a Reserve soldier. Understandably, he canʼt wait for the school trip to the D-Day landing beaches.

In preparation for the trip, his teacher has asked the class to research someone who’s buried in the Normandy war graves. They will then each place a cross on the grave of their chosen soldier when they visit.

After giving her thoughts on the book, we were treated to some lovely words from the author himself;

“I am so happy that D-Day Dog is on the shortlist for the 2020 Children’s Book Award. The fact that the shortlist and winners are chosen by children means the world to us authors. Winning the 2019 award for Armistice Runner is the outstanding highlight of my career as a writer so far. So thank you, FCBG!”

You can find the complete blog post here.

We then heard all about book number 2 from Alison at Books For Topics;

A Pocketful of Stars

Written by Aisha Bushby

Published by Egmont

Alison heard from author, Aisha, who had some lovely memories of the FCBG to share with us;

‘The FCGB conference was the first event I attended for ‘A Pocketful of Stars’ and everyone was so wonderful and welcoming. I am absolutely thrilled to now be shortlisted for their award.’ 

After telling us more about the story, Alison told us why she loved it so much;

Throughout the story, the importance of connections with family and friends, near and far, is explored. Safiya discovers the differences in the types of relationships she has with the people in her life and the ones she values the most. Despite her mother being in a coma, the bond between the two grows stronger as the story goes on: the very first line in the book is about how her mum makes everything in to a game and yet Safiya unwittingly does this herself in making a game to help save her mum. Aisha Bushby uses beautifully descriptive language throughout the narrative to explore escapism and coping strategies children use when faced with the illness of a parent. The author also touches upon the impact cruelty and bullying can have and the importance of being kind.

To read the full blog click here.

Victoria, The Book Activist, finished this section of the tour by celebrating book 3;

Wildspark

Written by Vashti HardyPublished by ScholasticVictoria told us a little about why she is so pleased to see Wildspark on the Top 12 this year;“Featuring a truly imaginative world full of breath-taking scenery, wondrous inventions and the most marvellous array of characters you could hope to meet, Wildspark was one of my absolute favourite reads last year.”

She also had the chance to find out what the author, Vashti Hardy, thinks of the award;

“I’m overjoyed and honoured that Wildspark has been shortlisted for the FCBG Children’s Book Awards 2020! The FCBG is such a force for good in sharing and celebrating a love of books and I can’t wait to attend the ceremony, which I was lucky enough to be a guest at last year.”

With a competition to win a copy of the book, this was the perfect end to this leg of the tour.

To read the full blog post click here.

Thank you to all three of our amazing bloggers and to the authors, illustrators and publishers for their support and assistance in supplying books, quotes, interviews and resources for the posts.

Look out next week when we kick off the next round of blog posts to celebrate the Books For Older Readers from our final three fabulous bloggers

www.GoldenBooksGirl.wordpress.com

www.Glenthornelrc.blogspot.co.uk

www.Bookwormhole.co.uk

You can keep up to date with all things Children’s Book Award by following us on Twitter @CBAcoordinator or check the website www.fcbg.org.uk