Christopher Edge wins £1,000 STEAM Children’s Book Prize

Nosy Crow author Christopher Edge has won the inaugural £1,000 STEAM Children’s Book Prize for The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day.

Edge's winning novel is a mind-bending mystery about a girl who wakes up on her birthday to an unsettling, all-consuming blackness. In this shifted reality Maisie must work with the laws of the universe to try and set her world right.

Edge won the overall prize as well as the middle-grade category, where he competed against authors such as Dan Smith and Jane Clarke.

Roman Belyaev won the best information book award for How Does a Lighthouse Work? (BSmall), while How the Borks Became by Jonathan Emmet and Elys Dolan (Otter-Barry Books) was named the best early years book.

White Rabbit Red Wolf by Tom Pollock (Walker Books) won the YA prize and Battle of the Beetles by M G Leonard (Chicken House) was the winner of the ‘Your Choice Award’, which is voted for by school pupils.

The prize was set up by UCLan Publishing to celebrate children’s books that highlight the importance of science, technology, engineering, arts and maths.

UCLan publisher Hazel Holmes said: “We're thrilled with our list of winners, and really feel these books reflect the huge amount of talent the UK publishing industry has to offer. It's also key to note that each winner is coincidentally from an independent publishing house.”