Roald Dahl Funny Prize Winners 2011

The Roald Dahl Funny Prize is unique: launched to honour those books that make young people, and all of us, roar with laughter. Concerned that the really side-splittingly funny books were being overlooked by other book awards, Michael Rosen created the Prize in 2008 with Booktrust, as part of his work as Children's Laureate. The Prize aims to reward those authors and artists who write and illustrate their books using humour in their fiction and poetry.  

A rhyming picture book about pirate cats has seized the bounty for the funniest book for children aged six and under in this year's Roald Dahl Funny Prize. Cats Ahoy! is written by Peter Bently (who was also shortlisted in 2009 for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize), and illustrated by Jim Field.

It is joined on the podium by The Brilliant World of Tom Gates, the winner of the seven to 14 category, and the first in a series of books about Tom, an expert doodler and master of excuses, written and illustrated by Liz Pichon.

Both winners received their award and prize cheque of £2,500 o Tuesday 8 November 2011, presented at an awards ceremony at the Unicorn Theatre in London by the judges and Roald Dahl's widow Felicity Dahl.

The 2011 Roald Dahl Funny Prize shortlists were:

The Funniest Book for Children Aged Six and Under

Bedtime for Monsters by Ed Vere (Puffin)
Cats Ahoy! by Peter Bently, illustrated by Jim Field (Macmillan Children's Books)
FIRST WEEK AT COW SCHOOL by Andy Cutbill, illustrated by Russell Ayto (HarperCollins Children's Books)
Limelight Larry by Leigh Hodgkinson (Orchard)
Marshall Armstrong Is New To Our School by David Mackintosh (HarperCollins Children's Books)
A Place to Call Home by Alexis Deacon, illustrated by Viviane Schwarz (Walker)

The Funniest Book for Children Aged Seven to 14

The Fantastic World of Terry Jones: Animal Tales by Terry Jones, illustrated by Michael Foreman (Pavilion Children's Books)
The Brilliant World of Tom Gates by Liz Pichon (Scholastic)
The Get-rich-quick Club by Rose Impey (Orchard)
Letters from an Alien Schoolboy by Ros Asquith (Piccadilly Press)
Penny Dreadful is a Magnet for Disaster by Joanna Nadin, illustrated by Jess Mikhail (Usborne)
The Wrong Pong by Steven Butler, illustrated by Chris Fisher (Puffin)


All of the above are available from Amazon.