06 July 2015
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The prize celebrates the body of work of an author or illustrator who has made a great contribution to children's literature ...
The prize celebrates the body of work of an author or illustrator who has made a great contribution to children's literature
Amongst picture book author Shirley Hughes' most celebrated works are the Alfie series of books and Dogger, which in 2007 was voted the public's favourite winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal of all times. Phillips Pullman has described her as a 'national treasure'.
Shirley's first book, Lucy & Tom at the Seaside, was published in 1960. She published her first children's novel, Hero on a Bicycle, three years ago.
’Being chosen for the Booktrust Lifetime Achievement Award is a tremendous honour which I appreciate more than I can say,' said Shirley. 'I have derived so much fulfilment from my long career, first as an illustrator of other artists’ stories and then creating my own. Best of all has been perennially encountering very young children who are learning to look with such rapt pleasure and follow a story visually long before they are able to read.’
Award judge and Book Trust President, Michael Morpurgo, said: ‘Many millions of our children have come to love reading through the wonderful books of Shirley Hughes. She is also a national treasure to parents, because many millions of them too have grown up with Shirley Hughes, and are now passing on their affection for her stories, her characters and her illustration, to their own children. Book Trust's first Lifetime Achievement Award could not be more richly deserved.'
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