Ballydog has a Good Day

The Badness of Ballydog has been shortlisted for the Heart of Hawick Children’s Book Award 2011. Hawick is in the Scotland/England border region and deciding which book wins the award involves ten schools in the area. 600 students will soon begin reading and reviewing the shortlist and will vote next year.

A brilliant addition to the usual book prizes is that students are able to win awards for the best-written reviews. Next May someone will be voted “Best young reviewer of the year.” So everybody gets a go at entering their writing for honours.



Students also make short animations based on the books they’ve read. Last year children from six primary schools worked with an animator at Hawick Public Library to make the above trailer. It is for a book called Dog Lost by Ingrid Lee. In a month I happen to have a book coming out called Lost Dogs, that’s a good enough excuse to show their trailer on this blog.

Here’s the whole 2011 shortlist:

Meteorite Strike by A G Taylor.
Wilma Tenderfoot and the Case of the Frozen Hearts by Emma Kennedy.
The Chess Piece Magician by Douglas Burton.
The Great Hamster Massacre by Katie Davies.
The Badness of Ballydog by Garrett Carr.

Thank you to everyone involved for the nomination of my book. Click here to visit the award’s website.