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On the very top floor in the attic of Seven Stories, a group of people gathered to listen with excitement to the announcement of the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Book Award. Set within a roof space of sturdy beams, interlocked together from the industrial past of this amazing building beside the canal, the atmosphere was wonderfully friendly with an electric buzz waiting to find out which book and which author had won.
' And the winner is....
Tom Avery for Too Much Trouble
A story of two brothers, Emmanuel and Prince. Emmanuel tells his story as he looks back on how events led to him holding a gun to a man's head. The boys are forced to live on hand outs as their drug dealer uncle says they are too much trouble. They make an art of being unnoticed. But when they are forced to look after themselves they end up in a life of crime from which Emmanuel can see no way out.
Short listed for the prize were, Remi Oyedele for Goal Dreams, Sue Stern for Rafi Brown and the Candy Floss Kid and Karon Alderman for Story Thief.
The judges were made up of a panel including the team at Seven Stories and they said that they had some excellent entries in this second year of the award.
The award was announced by John Nichol, Managing Director at Frances Lincoln and Janetta Otter Barry, said that she is looking forward to working with Tom on the future publishing of the book.
Our team from Dolphin Booksellers were delighted to be at the event and look forward to the publication of Too Much Trouble.
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The winner of the Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children's Book Award for 2010 will be announced on Tuesday 8th June 2010 at
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The Young Inferno is an amazing retelling of this classic by Dante. Full of action and loads of mental images, pacy and more than just engaging. The Furies are there and you will come face to face with them!
Wendy Cooling ,the founder of
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Other titles she has written are A is for Africa, which is a complete alphabet of places in Africa. (
At a Children's Centre opening, where we were holding a City Story event. Ifeoma was famously doing some games with the children on the floor. Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children and Families was opening the Centre and he joined in too, as well as the head teacher.