She’s a Winner

Astro Girl has just won an award- The STEAM Children’s Book Prize- a science award. While I have been fairly consistent through the years I haven’t won many awards. That isn’t my aim, so perhaps that’s why. It always seemed way too obscure, and hard work, to come up with an award-winning idea. Just seeing your book in a shop window feels like an award, or seeing a child’s face light up as they hear or read the story feels like a victory. So this feeling is relatively new.

I had a strong feeling that Astro Girl’s story would resonate with families, gender politics, aspiration and race in a very naturally inclusive way.  The book is about dreams and we all have dreams. But exploring the WHY and the HOW behind those dreams was a revelation! The the story opened up and I remember being very excited.

All this thinking took time, of course. There is a reason why a book should take as long as possible to complete… and I wonder if there will ever be that much time available again.

There are many wonderful books for children and families out there. Book s where children can just be themselves enjoying happy lives with their families, whatever their families look like. They inspire us to be better every day if we allow them to. So what not be inspired.?

Astro Girl is a winner, just like its readers and the real women and men that inspired it.