Debut author Katie Davies won the Waterstone’s children’s book prize for a book entitled The Great Hamster Massacre. The plotline of the book focuses on two girls who set out to solve a murder mystery involving a slew of dead hamsters aimed at children between the ages of seven to ten, making it the first children’s book of that age group to win the prize.
Davies stated that she originally had older children in mind as the audience for her book, but was told that most children past the age of ten are no longer interested in hamsters. The author also stated that the story was inspired by events that happened while she was young when the mother of her hamsters ate its young.
It was the memory of this incident that inspired Davies to start to ask friends about their pet tales and fatal hamster stories.
Although this does not sound like the start of a children’s book, Davies took the stories and turned them into a book full of humour told from the touching point of view of a young girl inquisitive about her hamster’s deaths.
Davies defends the book’s content stating that it is not actually about death, but that she just realizes life is like that and it gives children a realistic book that is written about life and death.
The book is the first novel written by Davies although there is more to come since she has a four book dealing with happier scenarios and titles such as The Great Cat Conspiracy and The Great Rabbit Rescue.
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.