We’re delighted that Alex T. Smith has won the 5-9 year old Fiction category of the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Awards 2016 for Claude: Going For Gold.
The book, published by Hodder in March this year, is the eighth in the Claude series, written and illustrated by Alex.
Pete Selby, head of music and books at Sainsbury’s said that they launched the awards in 2014 to both “celebrate and sell books” and to highlight the very best children’s books to their customers. The retailer has sold 87,000 copies of the shortlisted titles to date and the 2016 shortlist and award winners will now be promoted in 300 Sainsbury’s shops nationwide for a period of two weeks. Selby also said he was “proud” of what his company has achieved as a children’s bookseller. “Our book sales, adult and children, are up 11%, against a market that is up 6%, and we are delighted with how we are continuing to perform.”
This year a total of 12 books were shortlisted for the awards across all categories with You Must Bring A Hat by Simon Philip and Kate Hindley (Simon & Schuster) winning the ‘book of the year’ prize – so congratulations to them too.
You can read more about the antics of the adorable Claude in our previous blog about Going for Gold.
