Knife story wins Guardian children's fiction prizePatrick Ness takes award for 'challenging' novel The Knife of Never Letting Go
Patrick Ness's first novel for teenagers has won this year's Guardian children's fiction prize. Ness's The Knife of Never Letting Go, about a world where thoughts are audible, beat Jenny Downham's Before I Die, Frank Cottrell Boyce's Cosmic and Siobhan Dowd's Bog Child to take the £1,500 prize.
Chair of judges and Guardian children's books editor Julia Eccleshare said the panel of judges, made up of children's authors Mary Hoffman, Mal Peet and last year's winner Jenny Valentine, were blown away by the "breathtaking quality" of Ness's writing. "It's challenging but not bleak - an excitingly different book," she added.
The Knife of Never Letting Go traces the journey of 12-year-old Todd Hewitt after he is forced to flee the stifling male-only environs of Prentisstown, where the thoughts of each inhabitant, man and beast, are a never-ending swell of Noise. With only his singularly chatty dog Manchee ("Need a poo, Todd") and the mysteriously silent Viola for company, Todd fights to survive and to learn the dark secrets behind Prentisstown's facade.
Read the full Guardian report online.
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