The winners of the Costa Book Award categories have been announced, and Young Adult author Brian Conaghan has taken the Children’s Book prize with his third novel The Bombs That Brought Us Together.
The story is about two unlikely friends from opposing towns, and features themes of war, loyalty and morality. The judges (including How To Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell) stated: ““Timely yet also hilariously funny, Bombs is a necessary take on modern life in extraordinary circumstances.”
Conaghan wrote the book after watching a news piece on the conflict between the UK and the Crimea, which got him thinking about the children displaced from their homes; with no choice in what was happening, and often losing everything they owned and the people they loved, this led to the creation of the character Pavel, a refugee who moves into the protagonist Charlie’s town. On the subject of his award, he said “It’s quite staggering to be even on the shortlist but to win it is amazing.”
His book, as well as the other category winners, now goes on to be considered for the overall Costa Book Award 2016, the winner of which will be announced on Tuesday 31st January 2017.
For more information head over to the Costa Book Awards website here www.costa.co.uk/costa-book-awards.
