UK's Whitbread Book of the Year Winner Announced

"The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time," by Mark Hedden, just won the prestigious Whitbread Book of the Year Award. The novel, told from the perspective of an autistic teenager, has been popular in both the UK and the US. According to the official media release, "'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,' which is published in both an adult and a children’s version, is the sixth novel to win the Whitbread Book of the Year since 1985. It has already won numerous children’s and teenage fiction awards and was initially entered for the Children’s Book Award as well, but was withdrawn by the publishers in preference to the Novel Award. (Whitbread Book Awards rules stipulate that books may only be entered in one category.) "

In a Guardian Unlimited article, the chair of the panel of judges, broadcaster Joan Bakewell, is quoted as stating that it's "'quite exceptional in the way Haddon is able to express the voice of the child and to get into the boy's language. It is extraordinary because of the limitations he has put on himself. He reveals the boy as a thinking and tender person. We also thought it terribly funny.'"

I have not yet read the book, but it sounds fascinating. If you or your children have read it, let me know what you think of it by posting a message on the About Children's Books Forum. recall recall