Welcome to my stop on the Children’s Book Award Top Ten 2025 Blog Tour.
The Children’s Book Award is the only national award for children’s books that is voted for entirely by children. It is owned and coordinated by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and is highly respected by teachers, parents and librarians. It has brought acclaim and strong sales to past winners such as J.K. Rowling, Patrick Ness, Andy Stanton, Malorie Blackman, Anthony Horowitz and Michael Morpurgo, who has won a record four times. The award has often been the first to recognise the future stars of children’s fiction and has the ability to turn popular authors into bestsellers.
As part of the CBA blog tour, we were given the opportunity to speak with Tom Percival, author of The Bridges, one of the ten shortlisted titles for this year’s Children’s Book Award. Tom has been under some tight deadlines recently and his publicist requested a phone interview, which was entirely exciting for Erin, our blog manager and Vice-Chair.
Knowing Tom’s work so well and being a fan of all his picture books and most recently, his middle grade, The Wrong Shoes, Erin was delighted to create a few questions for Tom. Erin has taken copious notes and shares Tom’s answers in today’s guest blog.
What do you think it is about The Bridges that won children over?
I think it’s the universality of books and stories. Anyone can relate to engaging with stories in any form. Reading broadens your mind and experiences and reading books can increase your empathy, inform you and educate you- all of which are worth celebrating.
There is also a feeling of escapism with reading- you can literally go to a place in a book that you might never be able to do in real life. This is so compelling for readers.
What would you hope they take away from Mia’s story?
Children can really resonate with Mia and even those that can’t benefit from reading her story. The Bridges is an encouraging story on the power of reading and stories. It shows how we can benefit from reading and how accessible books are from libraries and schools.
Readers may find escapism or respite from challenges they are facing in their own lives.
Your picture books often hit to the heart of big emotions and tough situations, are these hard to write about? Are you impacted by your own experiences?
100% yes! We are a product of our own events and experiences and these impact who you will become. I want to help children to explore big and challenging emotions. These give a sense of how you are feeling in the moment and that you need to understand these as they determine a course of action. If you feel angry, you may react angry.
I was trying to communicate awareness of emotions to children.
How does it feel to be nominated for an award solely voted on by children at every stage of the process?
It feels amazing especially with The Bridges. There is often a thought that funny books are more important than those of a more serious nature but children need both in their lives. Sometimes they will want a funny book while at others, something like The Bridges can be a welcome escape and empathy builder.
I am really pleased that it resonated with readers.
Is there anything you would like to say to those children?
Thank you and KEEP READING!
Reading is the best way to grow as a person.
With books, the reader is doing a lot of creative work by interpreting the story and turning it into a reality for themselves. They are growing their mind, building empathy and understanding the world around them. Everyone’s interpretation of a story is different, and this is one reason why reading is so important.
Tom and Erin chatted easily about his thoughts on reading for pleasure and of his processes when writing and illustrating his picture books. There is much more to it than first meets the eye and Erin was really impressed with Tom’s insights into his current work and that of his future- watch this space for more exciting books from Tom Percival.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster and to Tom for sharing his thoughts, opinions and plans with Erin.
Children across the UK are encouraged to get involved. Copies of the books can be purchased at a discount from our partner supplier Heath Books here [link https://www.heathbooks.co.uk/federation-of-childrens-book-groups-childrens-book-award-2025/] and online voting will be opened at the conclusion of the blog tour. The deadline for voting is Friday 9th May and category winners and the overall winner of the most popular children’s book published in 2024 will be announced at a ceremony in Birmingham on 7th June, attended by representatives from all our local groups and livestreamed on the FCBG YouTube channel.
Thank you to Erin and the FCBG for inviting me to take part in the tour. Don’t forget to check out the other stops.
Book Craic 