Kurt Maschler Award facts for kids
The Kurt Maschler Award was a special British award for children's books. It ran from 1982 to 1999. Each year, it celebrated a "work of imagination for children." This meant the book had to have both great writing and amazing pictures. The text and illustrations had to work together perfectly.
The winners, both the author and the illustrator, received £1000. They also got a cool bronze statue called the "Emil."
Kurt Maschler started this award. He was famous for publishing the book Emil and the Detectives. Later, the award was managed by Booktrust and Tom Maschler. Tom was Kurt's son and also a publisher. The winners were usually announced in December.
Award-Winning Books and Creators
The Kurt Maschler Award recognized books where the words and pictures were equally important. Out of 18 winning books, seven were created by one person who both wrote and illustrated them.
Notable Winners and Their Works
Anthony Browne was a very successful winner. He won two awards for books he both wrote and illustrated. As an illustrator, he won three awards in total. Helen Oxenbury also won twice as an illustrator. Both Browne and Oxenbury won for different editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Carroll and Browne were the only authors to win two awards.
Below is a list of all the books that won the Kurt Maschler Award:
| Year | Author | Illustrator | Title | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1982 | Angela Carter (ed. and translator) |
Michael Foreman | Sleeping Beauty and other favourite fairy tales | V. Gollancz |
| 1983 | Anthony Browne | Browne | Gorilla | Julia MacRae |
| 1984 | John Burningham | Burningham | Granpa | J. Cape |
| 1985 | Ted Hughes (1968) | Andrew Davidson | The Iron Man | Faber |
| 1986 | Allan Ahlberg | Janet Ahlberg | The Jolly Postman | Heinemann |
| 1987 | Charles Causley | Charles Keeping | Jack the Treacle Eater | Macmillan |
| 1988 | Lewis Carroll (1865) | Anthony Browne | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Julia MacRae |
| 1989 | Martin Waddell | Barbara Firth | The Park in the Dark | Walker |
| 1990 | Quentin Blake | Blake | All Join In | J. Cape |
| 1991 | Colin McNaughton | McNaughton | Have You Seen who's just moved in next door to us? | Walker |
| 1992 | Raymond Briggs | Briggs | The Man | Julia MacRae |
| 1993 | Karen Wallace | Mike Bostock | Think of an Eel | Walker |
| 1994 | Trish Cooke | Helen Oxenbury | So Much | Walker |
| 1995 | Kathy Henderson | Patrick Benson | The Little Boat | Walker |
| 1996 | Babette Cole | Cole | Drop Dead | J. Cape |
| 1997 | William Mayne | Jonathan Heale | Lady Muck | Heinemann |
| 1998 | Anthony Browne | Browne | Voices in the Park | Doubleday |
| 1999 | Lewis Carroll (1865) | Helen Oxenbury | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland | Walker |
Connection to the Kate Greenaway Medal
Some books that won the Kurt Maschler Award also won another important award. This was the annual Kate Greenaway Medal. The Greenaway Medal is given by the Library Association. It celebrates the best children's book illustration by a British artist each year.
The first two Maschler Award winners and the last one also won the Greenaway Medal. For example, Gorilla (1983) by Anthony Browne won both. Helen Oxenbury's Alice in Wonderland (1999) also won both. In 2007, these two books were named among the top ten Greenaway winners from the past 50 years.
Three other books were highly praised for the Greenaway Medal. These were Browne's Alice, Oxenbury's So Much, and Patrick Benson's The Little Boat.
