Rosen returns for more LOL with Scholastic awards

Former Children’s Laureate Michael Rosen is to chair the judging panel selecting the shortlist for the Laugh Out Loud Awards (the Lollies), run by Scholastic UK, for a second year.

Joining Rosen will be Sunday Times children’s book editor Nicolette Jones and CBBC Children’s Book Club host Katie Thistleton.

Thistleton, who said she was “super excited” to be judging, commented: “It takes a very good book to make you physically LOL, and I’m looking forward to having fun trying to find a shortlist of the ones which do, so that some very lucky children can then have a great time picking the winner.”

Jones said: “Writing funny books tends to be an underrated skill: being funny is difficult, and you have to be clever and skilled to get it right. And if you turn out to be unfunny, you are very exposed as the tumbleweed rolls by. I am delighted to be a Lollies judge of the work of writers brave enough to try to make us laugh.”

This year’s awards will be sponsored by Happy Monkey Smoothies, with media partner Popjam also on board to provide a voting platform for children to pick their category winners.

The Lollies, which ran for the first time last year, were created in response to findings from Scholastic’s Kids & Family Reading Report, which found that what two-thirds of children aged 6-17 looked for when choosing books for themselves were "books that make me laugh". The Lollies are awarded in three categories: Best Laugh Out Loud Picture Book, Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 6-8s and Best Laugh Out Loud Book for 9-13s.

Scholastic received over 130 submissions from publishers across all categories for the 2017 awards. The judges’ shortlists will be announced in June when voting will also open. Voting will close in December, with the winners being decided solely by children’s votes, and announced at an awards ceremony in London in January 2018.

Rachel Partridge, Scholastic  group marketing and publicity director, said: “We were delighted with the support for the Lollies last year, but the best thing was that people asked when it was coming back. Everyone has recognised that this is about creating a moment for children to get really excited and enthused about reading and to create a huge signpost for the best funny books around. We can’t wait for the judges to pick their shortlist from the fantastic books submitted so that we can wave the start flag for kids to read, discuss and debate these books and pick their winners.”