THE BOOK OF BEES wins the ALCS Educational Writing Award 2017, the UK’s only award for creative educational writing

Picture of Martin Reed

Martin Reed

Martin was the SoA's Head of Communications from 2016 to 2024.

5th December 2017 

The £2,000 prize was presented at the All Party Parliamentary Writers Group (APWG) Winter Reception at the House of Commons on 5th December. 

The winner of the 2017 Award is THE BOOK OF BEES, written by Wojciech Grajkowski, illustrated by Piotr Socha, and translated into English from the Polish by Agnes Monod-Gayraud.

Published by Thames & Hudson, THE BOOK OF BEES is ‘a striking, witty and many-layered hive of a book which tracks bumble bees from the age of the dinosaurs to their current plight, swarming with information along the way about the role bees have played throughout history and in the rest of the natural world.’

 

“A wonderfully imagined and wittily illustrated compendium of information all about bees their central role in our world, which pitches contrasting elements together in just the way that children love.  Full of humour, it takes in the ancient Greeks and Egyptians, entomology, botany, the Bible, design, technology and more, breaking the subject of bees out of its traditional confines. Everything is beautifully explained in detail on a double-page spread for a deeper understanding. Quite magnificent”.

The shortlist consisted of five other titles including SECRETS OF THE SEA, written by Kate Baker and illustrated by Eleanor Taylor (Big Picture Press/Templar); FLUTTERING MINIBEAST ADVENTURES, written by Jess French and illustrated by Jonathan Woodward, with paper engineering by Keith Finch (Red Shed/Egmont); GENIUS! THE MOST ASTONISHING INVENTIONS OF ALL TIME, written by Deborah Kespert and designed by Karen Wilks (Thames & Hudson); SUPER SKILLS: HOW TO CODE IN 10 EASY LESSONS by Sean McManus and Venitia Dean (QUED Publishing/Quarto and TREE OF WONDER: THE MANY MARVELLOUS LIVES OF A RAINFOREST TREE, written by Kate Messner and illustrated by Simona Mulazzani (Chronical Books).

 

MORE ABOUT THE AWARD

Now in its tenth year, the Educational Writers’ Award was established in 2008 by the Authors’ Licensing & Collecting Society (ALCS) and the Society of Authors (SoA) to:

“celebrate educational writing that inspires creativity and encourages students to read widely and build up their understanding o​f a subject beyond the requirements of exam specifications.”

For further information please contact:

Caroline Sanderson: 01453 759 889 / 07598 558 196 / carosande@aol.com

Alison Baxter, ALCS: 020 7264 5700/alison.baxter@alcs.co.uk

The Prizes Department, Society of Authors: 020 7373 6642/ Prizes@societyofauthors.org

For the full press release, please click here

 

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