MR RIPLEY'S BOOK COVER WARS FINAL 2016/17 - EMILY BARR BOOK COMPETITION

Here we go again....
Over the last four weeks, different authors and illustrators and publishers have battled for their book covers to be voted into the grand final. As a result, we now have five worthy winners who have the chance to be crowned with the title 'Mr Ripley's Enchanted book cover of the year'. So without any further waiting, let the final battle of Book Cover Wars commence . . . . 

A very big thanks to you the authors and illustrators who have got behind their book covers. 

As a voter, not only will you get the chance to choose your final favourite book cover, but you will also be in with the chance to win, A PROOF copy of Emily Barr - The One Memory of Flora Banks. 

If you are interested then all you need to do is:

• Vote for your favourite book cover using the poll at the bottom of the page. 
• Leave a comment through this post or poll 
• Spread the word on social media Twitter/Facebook #BOOKCOVERWARS 
• Sit back, watch the voting develop and wait to hear whether you've won (once the poll has closed). 
• This poll will end midnight 27th December 2016 

So here are the five book covers to vote for:

Book One: Lucy Strange - The Secret of Nightingale Wood - Book Cover by - Helen Crawford-White - Published by Chicken House Ltd, Oct. 2016. 

Book Two: Alexander Gordon Smith - Book Cover by Andrew Arnold - The Devils's Engine: Hellfighters Bk2 - Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (November 1, 2016)

Book Three: Rob Lloyd Jones - Book Cover by Petur Antonsson - Jake Atlas and the Tomb of the Emerald Snake - Published by Walker Books (5. Jan 2017) 

Book Four:  Cameron McAllister - Book Cover artwork by Jeff Nentrup - The Demon Undertaker - Published by Corgi Children's (1 Sept. 2016) 

Book Five: Roderick Gordon - Summerhouse Land - Book Cover by Stanley Donwood - Published by Mathew & Son Limited -  (20 Jun. 2016) 




Happy Voting All!

Janet Foxley’s Muncle Trogg wins the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Prize 2010

Janet Foxley has won the prestigious Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Award, beating off four other budding unpublished authors.
The other books in the shortlist were:
Miles Cain - A Song For Nick Moon;
Ash Walker - Hair; 
Chris Hill - Lucky Albion; 
Bea Davenport - The Serpent House.  
These are all worthy entries; it would be good to see them all in print very soon.
Congratulations to Janet, I will be looking forward to reading the published book shortly.


I have posted a small excerpt from the winning entry to whet the taste buds in anticipation of the forthcoming release - sometime next year, I think. I would really like to hear your views.


The only light in the Troggs’ home came from Ma’s fire. Now it threw the shadow of a larger-than-life Gritt on to the rocky wall, with a much-too-small Muncle dangling helplessly from his hand.

‘Ma!’ Muncle yelled again. His shadow swung wildly to and fro.

This sort of thing made him feel smaller than ever. At twelve he should have been able to stand up for himself. But at the moment he couldn’t stand up at all. Gritt had him firmly by the ankles. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Gritt had been his older brother, but Gritt was four years younger.

‘Ma!’ He was going to be sick if he stayed upside down much longer. It was a good thing Pa wasn’t home yet. Pa always took Gritt’s side. Gritt was the sort of son a giant could be proud of.

Ma Trogg peered through the cloud of steam above her cauldron. She was a handsome woman with an enviable number of bristly warts, but her broad yellow smile was too often clouded by an anxious frown. It was all wrong that she still had to worry about her eldest child when she had two younger ones to look after. But she would always worry unless Muncle could find some way of fitting into a world where he so obviously didn’t fit. And time was running out. In three days he would be leaving school. If he couldn’t find a job he was capable of doing by then, his prospects were bleak.

‘Gritt!’ roared Ma. ‘Put your brother down at once.’

‘But you told me to play with him till breakfast.’

‘I didn’t mean you should use him as a toy.’

‘Oh. All right.’ Gritt dropped Muncle as quickly as he’d picked him up.

Muncle’s smallness did give him one advantage: he was unusually agile. The moment Gritt let go, Muncle somersaulted in mid air, landing on his bottom rather than his head. It still hurt. Where every other giant had rolls of comfortable fat, Muncle had only skin and bone.

He wasn’t bad looking. He had an excellent complexion: coarse grey skin dotted with sparse hairy warts. He had Pa’s bushy eyebrows and fleshy nose. He had Ma’s bulging eyes and uneven teeth. It was just Muncle’s size that was wrong.

‘We can’t wait for your pa any longer,’ said Ma. ‘Come and eat, both of you.’

She unstrapped the wicker baby-basket from her back and set it down beside the table. Flubb grabbed her leather bottle and glugged the fungus porridge down eagerly.

Mr Ripley's Book Cover Wars Final Winner Is Jon Mayhew's - Mortlock

The book covers battle has been a great adventure over the last few weeks. After four marvellous heats which were finally narrowed down to four wonderful covers, the exciting final developed this week. There soon appeared to be a front runner as Tracey & Kevin Morley's Unravellers amassed a great number of votes within hours. But then towards the end of the week, Jon Mayhew's Mortlock started to make a comeback and began to gain some support, which then developed into a spectacular ending. As a result of this spectacular ending Jon Mayhew managed to storm away with the prestigious accolade of 'Mr Ripley's Enchanted Book Cover of the Year. My hearty congratulations go to him - well done.
I'd like to thank all of the authors and people who have taken the time to vote or leave comments, you certainly made the battle incredibly tense and exciting at times. The voting has now closed, the winner of the signed and dated book will be contacted tomorrow, thanks for all of your comments.