CBI Irish Children's Book Awards

My dear friend Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick has just won the CBI Book Award for her novel Hagwitch.
The presentation in Dublin was a lovely event, and it was great to catch up with Marie-Louise and her husband, Michael Emberley, as well as the other shortlistees, Siobhán Parkinson, Paula Leyden, Derek Landy, Sheena Wilkinson, Oliver Jeffers and Eoin Colfer, our new Laureate na nÓg.
We had a lovely time celebrating with a great bunch of publishers, agents and families, as well as all of the lovely folks from CBI.
And I was lucky enough to pick up the CBI Award for Illustration myself for my work on Mysterious Traveller by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham.
Many thanks to Anne from Hodder for our lovely celebratory lunch.
Here are some photos from the day. 

Buzzing with Books

I am delighted to confirm that I will be taking part in the Buzzing with Books Conference at Mary Immaculate College in Limerick on the 22nd and 23rd of May. 

It should be a lot of fun as the other keynote speakers are all good friends of mine. Siobhan Parkinson, our first Laureate na nÓg will be there, as will my birthday buddy Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick and her husband Michael Emberley.

The conference stems from the long partnership between Mary Immaculate College and Frostburg State University, located in western Maryland, USA, as well as from the input of other important conference partners.

I was privileged to speak at Frostburg's own Children's literature Festival a number of years ago and am looking forward to meeting up with some old friends from Maryland who will be visiting the conference in Limerick. And I also look forward to meeting some of you there too I hope.