Helen Limon has won the 2011 Frances Lincoln Diverse Voices Children's Book Award to Helen Limon for Om Shanti, Babe, a story about growing up, family and friendships that the judges described as '...fabulous . . . laugh-out-loud funny'.

The tale of teenage Cassia, who is forced to drop her preconceived ideas when she joins her mother on a business trip to south India, takes in fair trade and environmental issues alongside Cassia's struggles to accept her mother's new Indian partner, her spiky tussles with fashion-mad friend-to-be Priyanka and her crushes on pop star Jonny Gold and Dev, a boy she meets on a train.
Pictured: Helen Limon (2011 winner) Tom Avery (2010 winner – Too Much Trouble is published today) and Karon Alderman (2011 runner up)
The Award, was founded jointly by Frances Lincoln Limited and Seven Stories, the national centre for children's books, in memory of Frances Lincoln (1945-2001) to encourage and promote diversity in children's fiction.
The prize of £1,500 plus the option for Janetta Otter-Barry at Frances Lincoln Children's Books to publish the novel is awarded to the best manuscript for eight to 12-year-olds that celebrates diversity in the widest possible sense.
Australian author Michelle Richardson received a Special Mention for Tek, a book about a young girl from the Aboriginal Australian Murrinh-Patha community who can communicate with the
ngepan, the spirits of the dead.
Tom Avery, was the winner of the award in 2010 also celebrated the publication on June 23rd of Too Much Trouble.
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How can a dusty old picture draw the past and the present together?
A great read from
More books than you could ever imagine under one roof! We went along on our annual trip to the bookfair at Earl's Court in London.

Jackie Morris, children's book illustrator and author has some wonderful illustrations of tigers. These fill many of her books with colour and splendour, and capture that engaging image of the tiger in the wild. Yet, within the picture lies a sense of majesty,strength and compassion.

Time for sending your entries for the Diverse Voices Award. This is the third year that
The award is held in memory of Frances Lincoln who was an advocate for hearing the voice of children in all sorts of situations, especially those who were unable to access books and reading.
Imagine 30 children in a village school on an October afternoon, enthralled, listening and just wanting to hear the end of the tale.
Jackie Morris's latest book The Ice Bear is newly in print this month with
Jackie also has exhibitions across the country.