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Mina and the Whole Wide World wins at the 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Awards
Posted 13.12.2022

Mina and the Whole Wide World wins at the 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Awards

Congratulations to Sherryl Clark and Briony Stewart whose Mina and the Whole Wide Worldhas won the Children's Literature Award at the 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Awards.

Judges comments:

This deftly crafted verse novel tells a powerful story with depth and authenticity. We see and hear this story through Mina's eyes and voice, a young girl who can't wait to move into her own room. Her disappointment when her parents tell her that her long-awaited room will now be inhabited by a refugee boy, is acute, and stops Mina from engaging with Azzami. But gradually her resentment changes to curiosity as she starts to see things from Azzami's point of view and wonders about his life and what has brought him here.

Sherryl Clark evokes Mina's family life, her parents' values and attitudes, and Mina's emotional struggles as she faces a situation where she needs to act, to right a wrong.

Mina's voice is poetic and well-pitched and Briony Stewart's illustrations are a highlight, using marvelously expressive body language and unusual perspectives to eloquently express an important theme of this book: that pictures can be a profound form of communication when words are too hard to find.

This is an outstanding example of a verse novel for younger readers; a slim yet satisfying story that opens up a world of ideas with plenty of space for children to imagine, empathise and ponder complex issues and feelings.

Prime Minister's Literary Awards 2022 award ceremony