The Galaxy British Book Awards sound quite a bit like the US’s now-no-more Quill Awards. That is, the public votes for them here.
Here is the children’s shortlist:
· Born to Run by Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins)
· That’s Not My Penguin by Fiona Watt (Usborne)
· My Pony Care Book by Katie Price (Random House)
· Kiss by Jacqueline Wilson (Random House)
· Horrid Henry and the Abominable Snowman by Francesca Simon (Orion)
educating alice 
What was it that Kevin Crossley-Holland said we should expect of children’s books? Moral dependability. Well, you won’t find that in Jacqueline WIlson’s books. What a waste of paper. I won’t make the mistake of reading one of her books to my kids again. (gosh, I sound righteously indignant)
I’ve never forgotten what Kevin said, and I always thing about it when I read a book that fails in its moral dependability.The first word he used to flesh out moral dependability was Kindness.
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Hm, I actually have very much liked the Jacqueline Wilson books I’ve read. (The Illustrated Mum, Double Act, and Candyfloss). I don’t think I’d read them aloud, but I find them very well-liked by my girls who also like Judy Blume et al.
Which did you read aloud that put you so off her?
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Sleepovers
I kept waiting and waiting for it to redeem itself. It had such potential. Filled with mostly 2-d characters, unrepented meanness, revenge. Nobody grows, despite many opportunities.
good to know that others of her books are well received, considering how many copies are sold.
my kids liked many of the characters in Sleepover but we were all disappointed with the way the story’s conflicts are resolved – or not resolved.
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