Torday wins Guardian Children’s Fiction award

Piers Torday has won the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award 2014.

Torday won the award for The Dark Wild (Quercus), a story about 12-year-old Kester and his adventures amongst some of the last wild animals in the land. The animals believe the time is right to rise up against their human enemies and Kester realises he is the only one can stopthem.

Torday beat the three other shortlisted authors: Kate DiCamillo, who was nominated for Flora & Ulysses (Walker Books); E Lockhart for We Were Liars (Hot Key Books), and S F Said for Phoenix (Random House Children’s Publishers).

The Guardian’s children’s fiction prize is for books written for children aged eight and older and is judged by fellow authors.

This year’s judges were Katherine Rundell, Frank Cottrell Boyce and Gillian Cross.