Winning Words- a new Book Promotion for children

Winning Words is a new Book Promotion for children by Clare County Library.It features the books that have won the Bisto Book of the Year and its sister award, the Eilis Dillon during the past decade. Multiple copies of each of the books in this promotion will be available for borrowing and the collection will be featured in each branch of Clare County Library for a three month period. The books will be accompanied by banners specially designed to mark ten years of the awards by Children’s Books Ireland.

The Bisto Book of the Year Award was introduced by Children’s Books Ireland to recognise talent in the field of children’s literature by Irish authors or authors living in Ireland. The highly regarded and prestigious prize brings new children’s books to the attention of children, parents, teachers and librarians and indeed to anyone who has an interest in good books for children and teenagers. The Bisto Book of the Year Award has this year been renamed the CBI Children’s Book of the Year Awards. Authors and illustrators born or resident in Ireland whose books are written either in Irish or English are eligible for consideration. 

The Eilis Dillon Award which goes to the author of an outstanding first children’s book was established in the mid nineties following the death of this esteemed Irish writer whose books have been compared to those of Graham Greene, Robert Louis Stevenson, Dorothy L. Sayers, Daphne du Maurier and Émile Zola.

In this children’s book promotion Clare County Library hopes to jog the memories of readers young and old who may have connected in a special way with any or many of the featured books. For anyone who is simply looking for a good book to read, the collection is worthwhile exploring, obviously because they are all award-winning books, and also because the authors and illustrators are guaranteed to whet your appetite and leave you searching for more after you’ve read from this list of recommendations. You willsee that some of the authors included are multi-award winners, some have received these awards for one or two years in succession and that almost all these writers have consistently been at the top of the best sellers lists of children’s books. The promotion will begin in De Valera Library, Ennis, and subsequently go ‘on tour’ of the county until every everyone has had the opportunity to avail of it. Click here for more details (PDF).