Congratulations to author/illustrator Jarvis who was presented with this year’s Alligator’s Mouth Award trophy for his heartwarming chapter book Bear and Bird: The Secret and Other Stories (Walker Books) at a ceremony on 18 June.

The Alligator’s Mouth Award was founded in 2018 by specialist children’s bookshop The Alligator’s Mouth in partnership with The Bright Agency. The aim of the award is to champion and celebrate highly-illustrated fiction titles for 6–8 year-olds –  an important, and often overlooked, category of books that helps children build reading stamina and gain confidence at a crucial stage of their reading journey.

Bear and Bird: The Secret and Other Stories was selected from a shortlist of five books by a judging panel made up of booksellers, authors and illustrators, including Alex Latimer, author of last year’s winning title Gordon the Meanest Goose on Earth (Oxford University Press).

Commenting on this year’s award, Margaret Wallace-Jones and Tony West, co-owners of The Alligator’s Mouth, said: ‘It was a wonderful Alligator’s Award shortlist this year, and Bear and Bird: The Secret is a worthy winner. This is a funny, clever and gentle addition to Jarvis’ popular series, reminiscent of the work of Arnold Lobel, and it will become a firm favourite with families who let these humble woodland creatures into their hearts.

‘The Secret is a handbook for childhood; full of friendship, squabbles, hide-and-seek, lists of favourites and unfavourites, storytelling and jokes. Read it and then insist that your supermarket stock stinky sock muffins.’

Find more children’s book awards here.