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Annabel Pitcher was named a "genuine literary star" last night (Thursday 21st March) as she won the Waterstones Children's Book Prize for Ketchup Clouds, published by Orion Children's Books imprint Indigo.
Pitcher was declared winner at a ceremony at Waterstones Piccadilly, having also been crowned champion in the teen category.
R J Palacio's Wonder (RHCP) won in the 5-12 fiction category, with Rebecca Cobb's Lunchtime (Macmillan Children's Books) named the best picture book from a six-strong shortlist.
As category winners, Pitcher, Palacio and Cobb each received a cheque for £2,000, with Pitcher also picking up an additional £3,000.
Ketchup Clouds sees its teenage protagonist reveal a terrible secret through a sequence of letters to a condemned murderer in a Texan jail. Waterstones m.d. James Daunt said: "Ketchup Clouds is an extraordinarily compelling read. It is an original and daring piece of writing, quite different to the fantastic and the futuristic that characterises so much of teenage fiction writing today. It deserves great success."
Melissa Cox, children's new titles buyer for Waterstones, described the novel as "a classic coming of age story featuring death, betrayal and redemption". She said: "Annabel Pitcher's handling of the subject is beautifully wrought and peppered with humour, layering the everyday teen experience with the extraordinary and traumatic. It's an unsettling yet fantastically fresh and brave take on the teen confessional. Pitcher is a genuine literary star."
Meanwhile Cox said US debut author Palacio's Wonder, about a boy with a facial deformity, was "a thought-provoking read with timeless appeal". On Cobb's win for Lunchtime, which is about a girl who doesn't want to eat her lunch, Cox said: "Picture books are one of the strongest areas of children's publishing in the UK today. Full of originality, our shortlist was rich and exciting, but Rebecca Cobb's Lunchtime shone through, with its wonderfully expressive young girl and beautifully realised animals looming large on the pages . . . Cobb is definitely one to watch."