The winners of the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, sponsored by Amazon.com, Penguin Group and CreateSpace and seeking "the next popular novel," are:
General fiction: Gregory Hill for East of Denver
YA fiction: Jill Baguchinsky for Spookygirl
Both authors receive a publishing contract from Penguin Group that includes a $15,000 advance and publication by the Dutton's adult and children's divisions, respectively.
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Michael Morpurgo's novel Shadow was the overall winner of this year's Red House Children's Book Awards, which is coordinated by the Federation of Children's Book Groups and is voted for entirely by children. BBC News reported this is the third Red House win for Morpurgo, who becomes the only author to do so in the award's 31-year history. Shadow won the category for younger readers as well as the overall prize.
Other category winners at the Red House book awards were Angela McAllister and Alison Edgson's Yuck! That's Not a Monster (younger children) and Alex Scarrow's TimeRiders (older readers).