Judges Announced for The Alligator's Mouth Awards 2020

The Alligator’s Mouth Award for highly illustrated children’s fiction returns for its second year – submissions are now open and we are hugely excited to reveal the judging panel.

Launched by Bright last year in partnership with The Alligator’s Mouth bookshop, the award was created to celebrate authors and illustrators of highly illustrated children’s fiction for ages 6-8. Here at Bright we wanted to champion these talented creators and highlight the very best books out there.

Today, we’re excited to announce that the judges will include last year’s winner Nick Sharratt, author & illustrator of the brilliant Nice Work for the Cat and the King. We were delighted to welcome the finalists at the Emporium for the evening and celebrate their incredible work.

Nick joined us in our Bright Emporium to receive his award.

Joining him on the judging panel will be award-winning author and illustrator, Yasmeen Ismail; founder of the Bath Festival of Children’s Literature, John McLay; Specialist Literacy Teacher, Richard Charlesworth; co-owners of The Alligator’s Mouth, Margaret Wallace-Jones and Tony West; and Arabella Stein, Director at The Bright Agency.

Bright Artist & Judge Yasmeen Ismail:

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“Awards like this are so important to champion writers and illustrators that may get overlooked in a crowded market. And when you can direct kids to different and exciting new stories from writers they may not have heard of, you are opening doors for them. BIG, EXCITING DOORS! I am honoured to have been selected as a judge and I can’t wait to get reading.”

Arabella Stein returning judge and Director at The Bright Agency:

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“We are so proud to be embarking on our second year of The Alligator’s Mouth Awards and I’m delighted to share the judging duties with such a brilliant line-up. We received such incredible submissions last year and we’re very excited to see what titles are in store for us this year. Illustrated books for developing readers are hugely important and showcase some of the best of our industry’s talents, so it’s a treat to be able to reward the best creators in this field.”

In addition, we’re delighted that book wholesalers Gardners will be taking their support of the award to the next level and will be joining us as an official partner for 2020.

The award is open to books published in the UK from the last year for readers aged 6-8. To enter the awards, publishers are invited to submit highly illustrated children’s books which have been published between 1st October 2018 and 30th September 2019. Submissions close on 8th November 2019. The longlist will be announced in March 2020. The winner of the prize will receive The Alligator’s Mouth Award trophy.

We can’t wait to see all the entries! Good luck everyone!

For further details & submission guidelines please visit: http://www.thealligatorsmouth.co.uk/award