[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":11},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-post-oliver-and-the-seawigs-wins-a-ukla-award":3},{"_type":4,"body":5,"bodyHtml":6,"excerpt":5,"featuredImage":5,"publishedAt":7,"slug":8,"tags":9,"title":10},"blogPost",null,"Yesterday was an exciting day for \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/oliver-and-the-seawigs/\">\u003Ci>Oliver and the Seawigs\u003C/i>\u003C/a> when Oliver, Iris, Cliff the rambling isle and a jabber of Sea Monkeys picked up a \u003Ca href=\"http://www.ukla.org/news/story/ukla_book_award_winners_2015/\">UKLA Award\u003C/a>! UKLA is the UK Literary Association and I've heard this award called 'the teacher's Carnegie' because it's judged entirely by teachers and it's a big honour to win it. Here's coverage in the Guardian:\\r\n\\r\n\u003Ca href=\"http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/jul/10/ukla-book-awards-2015-winners-announced\">\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/guardian_ukla_awards_zpsxv1sorry-f81226a38f.jpg\">\u003C/a>\\r\n(\u003Ci>Read the rest of the article \u003Ca href=\"http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2015/jul/10/ukla-book-awards-2015-winners-announced\">here\u003C/a>.\u003C/i>)\\r\n\\r\nEven the journey to the ceremony in Nottingham felt a bit special when, in honour of Wimbledon tennis, East Midland Trains surprised everyone with complimentary strawberries.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/emt_treats_zpsdgtefvuf-cc0b883755.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nMy co-author \u003Ca href=\"http://www.philip-reeve.com/\">Philip Reeve\u003C/a> snapped pictures of me busily making a \u003Ca href=\"http://picturesmeanbusiness.com/\">#PicturesMeanBusiness\u003C/a> cover for my phone. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_pmb_phone_zpsuofnxhzs-f82bd680ab.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWhen we arrived at the National College for Teaching and Leadership, we ran into fellow Oxford University Press-published author \u003Ca href=\"http://www.gilllewis.com/home.html\">Gill Lewis\u003C/a>, our Seawigs publisher \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/LizJCross\">Liz Cross\u003C/a> and UKLA's \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/Joyisreading\">Joy Court\u003C/a> (who's been very helpful with the #PicturesMeanBusiness campaign).  \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_gang_zpsz9ayp6yw-14f2921caa.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\n\u003C!--more Click here for more under the cut!-->\\r\nAnd here's writer \u003Ca href=\"http://jocotterill.com/\">Jo Cotterill\u003C/a>, and \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/SarahAnnHowells\">Sarah Howells\u003C/a> from OUP who was looking after us for the event. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_jo_phil_sarah_zpsnfy82epq-9df6ad0a90.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe were supposed to be schmoozing teachers before the ceremony but Reeve was most uncharacteristically reserved. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_reserved_zpsa59cifgp-4c0ae82500.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's UKLA's Lynda Graham opening the ceremony with a slide of all the shortlisted books for the three categories of awards. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_opening_zpspsmfelza-c5b23afba2.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWe got to see teachers talk about each book and how they'd used in their classrooms and how the children had responded to them. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_teacher_vid_zpsqnljvwgf-e651340457.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nI loved hearing from these kids about \u003Ci>Oliver and the Seawigs\u003C/i>. Check out the knitted Sea Nonkey, and that boy in the middle had made a clay version of Oliver! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_seawigs_reviewers_zpsqjgmqpdw-c482ef7eaa.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nWhile Seawigs won the main 7-11 award, Heather Butler's \u003Ca href=\"http://www.heatherbutler.info/my-books/us-minus-mum/\">\u003Ci>Us Minus Mum\u003C/i>\u003C/a> received a special commendation for dealing with death and grief. It was great to see a special award created for that book that will be very important for specific children going through these issues.\\r\n\\r\nAfter the ceremony, teachers came up to us afterward and raved about how important the Seawigs illustrations were to getting kids in their 7-11 age group reading and enjoying the experience. They can't get enough of quality illustrated chapter books. Philip and I didn't go into making these books because we saw a huge niche in the market - we just thought it was a great way to tell a story - but it's amazing to hear all the testimonials of how these illustrated books really hit home with kids. Philip and I took turns giving a short speech and making this drawing, and I talked a bit about #PicturesMeanBusiness and urged teachers to encourage their colleagues to talk just as much about the illustrator as the writer when they read and do class projects on books, so kids could have two sources of inspiration instead of one.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_drawing_zpsxqvlitoz-1914cf40cc.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHere's Philip and \u003Ca href=\"http://www.chrishaughton.com/\">Chris Haughton\u003C/a> mucking around after the dinner UKLA laid on for us.\\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_hats_zpsstb0vo2k-36c6ade6bf.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nHuge thanks to UKLA's David Reedy, Lynda Graham and Joy Court, award sponsor MLS, all the teachers and kids who read the huge stacks of books, \u003Ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MarilynBrock\">Marilyn Brocklehurst\u003C/a> from \u003Ca href=\"http://www.ncbc.co.uk/new/index.html\">Norfolk Children's Book Centre\u003C/a> who provided books on the day, our editor Liz Cross for coming along, and Sarah Howell for being so helpful and organised! Oh, and Philip, of course for making an ace book with me. That guy constantly amazes me with the story stuff he comes up with. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_phil_sarahs_zps2xd8mp4t-619cb8bad4.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nIf any teachers are reading this, check out my website for free printable activities to go along with our books \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/oliver-and-the-seawigs/\">\u003Ci>Oliver and the Seawigs\u003C/a>, \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/cakes-in-space/\">Cakes in Space\u003C/i>\u003C/a>, and the upcoming \u003Ca href=\"http://www.jabberworks.co.uk/pugs-of-the-frozen-north/\">\u003Ci>Pugs of the Frozen North\u003C/i>\u003C/a>. \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/seawigscakespugs_covers_zpsmv4bxrcg-9c5679419b.jpg\">\\r\n\\r\nTime to use that award bowl... it's strawberry time! \\r\n\\r\n\u003Cimg src=\"https://images.jabberworks.co.uk/lj/ukla_awards_bowl_zpsx6nflemz-92c6875a7f.jpg\">","2015-07-11T22:04:00.000Z","oliver-and-the-seawigs-wins-a-ukla-award",[],"oliver and the seawigs wins a ukla award!",1776628727735]