Waterstones prize winner Elle McNicoll: ‘I never saw autistic girls in books’

The author was repeatedly told that no one wanted to read fun books with disabled heroes. Now she has won the £5,000 Waterstones children’s book prize for her debut, A Kind of SparkWhen Scottish author Elle McNicoll was first trying to enter the publishing world, she was repeatedly told that people didn’t want to read about an autistic heroine. “In job interviews, I was saying that I wanted to see more books with disabled characters in them that were not traumatic, boring or educational, but fun and full of life. A lot of the reactions were, ‘Waterstones don’t like books like that’,” she says.Now McNicoll’s debut novel A Kind of Spark has won the Waterstones children’s book prize. Published by tiny independent Knights Of, it follows Addie, an 11-year-old autistic girl, as she campaigns for a memorial to the witch trials that took place in her Scottish village. The novel has been praised by Waterstones’ booksellers as “eye opening, heart-wrenching, sad [and] inspiring”. Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-07-01 05:01:05 UTC ]
News tagged with: #waterstones children #book prize #publishing world #people didn #disabled characters #witch trials #eye opening #debut novel #children’s book

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Scholar of World War II Homefront Wins American History Book Prize

The New-York Historical Society award goes to a study of fractures in American society a year after Pearl Harbor, which resonates amid the pandemic today. Continue reading at The New York Times

[ The New York Times | 2021-03-15 16:00:06 UTC ]
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Blue Peter Book Awards won by McNicoll, Barfield and Bradley

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[ The Bookseller | 2021-03-04 09:57:17 UTC ]
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Isabel Wilkerson, Jacob Soboroff, Akwaeke Emezi among L.A. Times Book Prize finalists

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[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-03-02 15:00:14 UTC ]
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Black & White acquires first book from GBBO winner Peter Sawkins

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Jessica Au named inaugural winner of The Novel Prize

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-02-09 15:02:11 UTC ]
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British Book Awards Name 2021 Jurors for 28 Prize Categories

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2021-02-01 20:15:39 UTC ]
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Girl A: Abigail Dean on her shocking debut novel that's taking the book world by storm

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[ The Guardian | 2021-01-25 06:00:07 UTC ]
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[ Los Angeles Times | 2021-01-13 15:00:43 UTC ]
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McNicoll bags Blackwell's Book of the Year

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[ The Bookseller | 2021-01-07 17:28:03 UTC ]
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Moomin marvellous: Brand raises £1m for Oxfam with Sort Of Books and Waterstones

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[ The Bookseller | 2020-12-10 09:53:37 UTC ]
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Announcing the Winner of Electric Lit’s Book Cover of the Year Tournament

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