How we work
What we do
Meet the team
Enquiry
Submissions
Artists
Agents
Collections
Submissions
Artists
Agents
Collections
Submissions
Authors
Artists
Agents
Collections
Submissions
Animators
Agents
Collections
Submissions
Artists
Agents
Collections
Submissions
Authors
Agents
Submissions
Blog
Judges announced for The Alligator’s Mouth Award 2021
last updated 17 November 2020
We are thrilled to reveal this year’s fantastic line up of judges for The Alligator’s Mouth Award 2021!
Bright’s Arabella Stein will be joining the judging panel for a third year, alongside acclaimed children’s author Smriti Halls; Adam Stower, winner of the 2020 prize with King Coo: The Curse of the Mummy’s Gold (David Fickling Books); award-winning book blogger and primary school librarian Jo Clarke (Book Lover Jo); primary school headteacher and book blogger Simon Smith; and Margaret Wallace-Jones and Tony West from The Alligator’s Mouth who will also be returning as judges.
Run by Bright and The Alligator’s Mouth bookshop, the children’s book prize celebrates the best highly-illustrated books for 6-8-year-olds, and champions authors and illustrators.
The Alligator’s Mouth Award 2020 - Winner Announcement Video
Smriti Halls on being a judge:
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be helping judge this brilliant prize. Illustrated fiction is a glorious funfair where children delight in language and art, build joy and confidence in reading and take another step towards becoming lifelong readers and lovers of books. Having a prize which celebrates this key area of writing, illustration and reading is completely wonderful and I can’t wait to dive in and discover the gems in this year’s selection.”
Arabella helping announce the 2020 winner!
Arabella on returning as a judge this year:
“There have been so many incredible highly-illustrated books published for young readers in the last year. I am thrilled to be joining such a wonderful panel of judges for our third year, and I am very excited to see which titles have been submitted for the award.”
Submissions for the 2021 award close Friday 20th November. The award is open to books first published in the English language on a children’s list by a UK publisher between 1st October 2019 and 31st December 2020. To enter the awards, publishers are invited to submit highly illustrated fiction aimed at readers aged 6-8, with illustrations on the majority of internal spreads.
The longlist will be announced in March/April 2021, and the shortlist will be announced in May 2021. The winner of the award will be announced in June 2021 and they will receive The Alligator’s Mouth Award trophy.
For further details click here.