The Roald Dahl Funny Prize

Booktrust, in association with Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen, is delighted to announce the inaugural Roald Dahl Funny Prize.

The winners were announced at an awards ceremony at the Unicorn Theatre in London on 13 November.

The winner of the Funniest Book for Children Aged Six and Under was The Witch’s Children Go to School by Ursula Jones, illus. Russell Ayto (Orchard Books)

The winner of the Funniest Book for Children Aged Seven to Fourteen was Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear by Andy Stanton, illus. David Tazzyman (Egmont Press)

Michael Rosen, Chair of judges, said:

'The Witch's Children Go To School is a rumbustious tale in the tradition of mishievous spirits causing mayhem and disorder where it's least wanted. Every page shouts with the sound of chaos and surprise: we are told that a school is turned into a storybook, the class teacher into the Mad Hatter and the school inspector is turned into a big smelly cheese. And that's not even half of it. This is a book that can be enjoyed many times, the corners of pages are as important as the middles, each spread invites the eye to busy itself all over the page hunting for new gags, while new impossibilities of anatomy, architecture and physics appear at every turn. The book is a delight.
 
'Andy Stanton has developed a comic style all of his own, full of ludicrous similes, uproarious bathos, absurdity and grossness. Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear fulfils the requirement that a truly funny novel should have at least a laugh a page and a gasp-making denouement. At the heart of the book is a a thought about how we treat animals, but don't let that confuse you. In fact, confusion is the outright winner here - as Jonathan Ripples says, 'pointing to an orange blob on his map, 'I thought this was England, but it turned out to be a bit of chicken tikka I spilt last night.'

Read the press release (Microsoft Word .doc 284Kb)

The panel of five judges was chaired by Michael Rosen; the other judges were Sophie Dahl, Dara O'Briain, Chris Riddell and Kaye Umansky.

Read more about the judges

Shortlists

A shortlist of six books in each category was announced on 8 September to tie in with the third Roald Dahl Day on 13 September.

The Funniest Book for Children Aged Six and Under

Stick Man by Julia Donaldson, illus. Axel Scheffler (Alison Green Books)
Elephant Wellyphant by Nick Sharratt (Alison Green Books)
The Great Paper Caper by Oliver Jeffers (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
The Witch’s Children Go to School by Ursula Jones, illus. Russell Ayto (Orchard Books)
There’s an Ouch in My Pouch! by Jeanne Willis, illus. Garry Parsons (Puffin Books)
Manfred the Baddie by John Fardell (Quercus Books)

The Funniest Book for Children Aged Seven to Fourteen

Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear by Andy Stanton, illus. David Tazzyman (Egmont Press)
Paddington Here and Now by Michael Bond, illus. RW Alley (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
Stop in the Name of Pants! by Louise Rennison (HarperCollins Children’s Books)
Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce (Macmillan Children’s Books)
Aliens Don’t Eat Dog Food by Dinah Capparucci (Scholastic Children’s Books)
Urgum and the Goo Goo Bah! by Kjartan Poskitt, illus. Philip Reeve (Scholastic Children’s Books)

Commenting on the shortlist, Michael Rosen said:

'It was a joy and a half to sit round a table, knee-deep in funny books, talking about them with a group of clever, humorous and thoughtful people. Almost all children love funny books, it's what helps hook them into the reading habit. Parents are always on the lookout for funny books to read to their children or to give them as surprises and presents. Now, with these 12 titles, pared down from hundreds that we received, we have the cream of this year's crop. I swear I heard Roald Dahl chortling in the background as we waved the books at each other. I should add that there was a good deal of discussion, argument - is this a smile-book or a laugh-book? Is this a book that adults will find funny and children won't? Does it matter if the text is funny but the pictures aren't? And vice versa? Does a funny book need a perfect punchline?

We think we've covered all ages here from a two year old's giggle to a teen's wry snort. Which ones will be the winners? Why not read all twelve and pick your own?'

The winner of each category will receive £2,500, which will be presented at an awards ceremony in London on 13 November 2008.

Read the press release

School readers

Two schools were nominated by Michael Rosen to be Roald Dahl Funny Prize shortlist readers.

Edmund Waller Primary School in south-east London received copies of the shortlisted books in the ‘Funniest Book for Children Aged Six and Under' category, and West Lodge Middle School in Pinner (which Michael attended as a child) received copies of the shortlisted books in the ‘Funniest Book for Children Aged Seven to Fourteen' category.

Both schools will attend the awards ceremony on 13 November and are working with a filmmaker to create short films about their children's reactions to the books.

Find out how the schools have been sharing the books

More about the prize

Michael Rosen explains:

'If there had been a prize for funny books when Roald Dahl was writing, he would have won it with every book he wrote! That’s why this award was named in his honour.

Children love funny books but when adults draw up lists of the best books they nearly always leave the funny ones out. When I became the Children’s Laureate, I said that my job should be as an ambassador for fun. That's why I came up with the idea of this funny prize, all part of the job!'

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize aims to:

> promote laughter and humour as a feel-good factor when reading, by encouraging families to read together and discover the pleasure of humorous (funny) books. This in turn will reinforce the message that reading together promotes family well-being.

> draw attention to funny books as readable and enjoyable books. We hope that the prize will enable these books to gain a profile that makes them more accessible to children and young people. The prize will work to achieve this through a range of activities supported by libraries, teachers and parents.

> reward and encourage authors (and illustrators) who write and illustrate books using humour in their stories, poetry and fiction. By creating these awards we hope to promote a vibrant area of publishing often overlooked by other awards.

Felicity Dahl, the author's widow, said:

'Roald would have been absolutely thrilled to have this prize named in his honour. Humour is at the heart of all his writings and, as a strong supporter of new talent, he'd have been tremendously excited at all the wonderful funny books being published for young people today.'

Sophie Dahl, eldest grandchild of Roald Dahl and the inspiration for the character of Sophie in The BFG, added:

'I am thrilled and tickled to join the judging panel of the Roald Dahl Funny Prize this year. A prize that involves laughing until your belly aches and you get the hiccups is the kind of prize I want to be involved with for eternity. It's a pretty irresistible proposition.'

Roald Dahl himself, of course, appreciated the role of humour in his writing:

'My lucky thing is that I laugh at exactly the same jokes that children laugh at and that's one reason I'm able to do it. I don't sit here roaring with laughter but you have wonderful inside jokes all the time and it's got to be exciting, it's got to be fast, it's got to have a good plot but it's got to be funny. It's got to be funny. Each book I do is a different level of that ...

The fine line between roaring with laughter and crying because it's a disaster is a very, very fine line. You see a chap slip on a banana skin in the street and you roar with laughter when he falls slap on his backside. If in doing so you suddenly see he's broken a leg, you very quickly stop laughing and it's not a joke anymore. I don't know, there's a fine line and you just have to try to find it.'

Visit the official Roald Dahl website

Prize administration

Prize information
Tarryn McKay
t 020 8516 2972
e tarryn@booktrust.org.uk

Press enquiries
Katherine Solomon
t 020 8875 4583
e katherine.solomon@booktrust.org.uk

Roald Dahl photo © Jan Baldwin