Patrick Ness’s The Knife of Never Letting Go has won this year’s Guardian children’s fiction prize. I thought it was a fabulous book and so am thrilled to bits. Congratulations, Patrick! That said, I would have been delighted if any of the books on the shortlist that I’d read had won. All were stellar.
I’m also amused that it won a “children’s” award because there was a bit of a kertuffle last summer with Frank Cottrell Boyce’s (whose Cosmic which I adored was also on the shortlist) Guardian review of this book. Boyce loved the book, but felt it should be read by adults too and wondered if that would happen if the book was limited to YA sections of bookstores. Hope that it winning a children’s book award doesn’t further limit adult consumption!
educating alice 
We are having this discussion in my YA Literature class.
I am achingly tired of the wholesale dismissal of children’s/YA literature that is mostly what we see in public forums (fora?) and I snapped, probably unfairly, at a student who talked about relegating a good title to YA. It’s where the good stuff is.
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Hi, Alice,
Just wanted to say thanks for the kind words and (continuing, I must say) support of Knife of Never Letting Go. And cheers for the kind words about the Guardian Prize, too, a very fun night and I was convinced Siobhan Dowd was going to win (and said as much in my speech!).
As for the Newbery (mentioned in another post), I can merely confirm my American-ness. Everything else would be entirely up to them; I stay out of those things as much as possible (I’ve got further volumes to write, for one thing…)
But cheers again, and if this is inappropriate for the comment boxes, feel free to edit me out. Just passing on my thanks,
Cheers,
Patrick Ness
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Oops, of course I meant “Hi, [your real name]” which I do know, but there is that great big “alice” across the top of the page…
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