We are so excited to announce the Judges for The Alligator’s Mouth Award 2023!

The Alligator’s Mouth Award returns for a fifth year, to celebrate the very best in highly illustrated children’s fiction. Children’s author Nizrana Farook will be on the judging panel this year, alongside last year’s winner Pippa Curnick. Pippa won the 2022 award with Indigo Wilde and the Creatures at Jellybean Crescent (Hodder Children’s Books).

Joining them on the judging panel will be primary school teacher and children’s book consultant ‘The Reader Teacher’ Scott Evans; and co-owners of The Alligator’s Mouth children’s bookshop, Margaret Wallace-Jones and Tony West.

Scott Evans commented: “Now celebrating its fifth year championing both authors and illustrators of highly illustrated children’s fiction (congratulations!), I am enormously proud to be a judge on the panel for the Alligator’s Mouth Award 2023. Looking at each of the previous shortlists shows how much this magnificent award is growing from strength to strength and this makes me even more excited to see this year’s submissions.

Known as ‘The Reader Teacher’ because of my love for promoting reading for pleasure in schools, highly illustrated books have always held such a special place in my heart and been an essential part of the representative range of reading on offer to children in my classroom. So I can’t wait to choose and share with the world what we know will surely be another stellar selection.” Scott Evans, The Reader Teacher

This year marks the fifth-year anniversary of the award, which was founded by The Alligator’s Mouth and The Bright Agency in 2018. The prize celebrates the best books for 6-8-year-olds, and champions authors and illustrators.

Margaret Wallace-Jones and Tony West of The Alligator’s Mouth commented: ‘We are beyond thrilled to be announcing the judges for the fifth year of our award. Our previous longlists highlight a host of brilliant books that make a stepping-stone into reading, building confidence and stamina. We get tons of feedback about how they have helped children discover the pleasure of reading.’

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For more on the Alligators Mouth award, click here.