Prize reads for little ones children's book awards shortlist

A BOOK published by an author who died just as her career was taking off has been nominated for the 20th Bisto Children’s Book of the Year Awards.

London-born Siobhan Dowd's novel, Solace of the Road, about a child growing up in England who searches for her Irish-born mother, is one of 10 books nominated for the prize.

Dowd, who died of breast cancer in 2007, aged 47, has already won the prize twice, both times posthumously. She lived to see her second novel, The London Eye Mystery, published, but not to see it win the award in 2008. Last year she won it for the posthumously published Bog Child. Solace of the Roadwas printed last year.

Two other previous winners, Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, nominated this year for There, and Jane Mitchell for her latest book Chalkline, are among the contenders for the €10,000 prize. The full list includes crime writer John Connolly for The Gates; An Gréasaí Bróg Agus Na Sióga (The Elves and the Shoemakers)by Catríona Hastings, illustrated by Andrew Hastings; Colm and the Lazarus Keyby Kieran Mark Crowley; Gluaiseachtby Alan Titley; Lincoln and his Boysby PJ Lynch; The Eyeball Collectorby FE Higgins; and The Third Pig Detective Agencyby Bob Burke.