Smith and Solomon triumph at the Lollies

Books by Jim Smith, Christine Hamill, David Solomons and Kes and Claire Gray and Jim Field have been revealed as the winners of the 2018 Laugh Out Loud Awards (known as the Lollies).

Oi Dog!, written by Kes and Claire Gray and illustrated by Field, was awarded the prize for ‘best laugh out loud picture book’, whilst Smith won the award for 6-8 year-olds with his book Future Ratboy and the Invasion of the Nom Noms (Egmont). Hamill won in the 9-13 category with The Best Medicine (Little Island) and Solomon was given the PopJam award after his book My Gym Teacher is an Alien Overlord received the most votes via the PopJam app.

Scholastic created the Lollies in 2015 to celebrate funny books for children following the demise of the Roald Dahl Prize.

The winners with judges Nicolette Jones, Katie Thistleton and Michael Rosen

For this year’s prize, judges such as author Michael Rosen and journalist Nicolette Jones put together a shortlist. School children were then encouraged to read the shortlists over a period of six months then vote for their favourite books, either via their teacher or the PopJam app.

“It’s fantastic to see the huge engagement from schools and children for the Lollies,” said Rosen. “The books that children have chosen are all worthy winners but even more importantly, it’s provided a focus for children to read for pleasure and discover the joy that funny books can bring.”

The winners were announced at an awards ceremony in London, hosted by TV presenter Katie Thistleton and attended by hundreds of children, who were entertained by a stage performance, which included sketches from Gangsta Granny and Horrible Histories and a live performance by singer and now children’s author Alesha Dixon.

Alesha Dixon reading from Lightning Girl