Welcome to my stop on the blog tour to mark the announcement of the shortlist for the Federation of Children’s Book Groups (FCBG) Children’s Book Award.

The Children’s Book Award is the only national award for children’s books that is voted for entirely by children. It is owned and coordinated by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups and is highly respected by teachers, parents and librarians. It has brought acclaim and strong sales to past winners such as J.K. Rowling, Patrick Ness, Andy Stanton, Malorie Blackman, Anthony Horowitz and Michael Morpurgo, who has won a record four times. The award has often been the first to recognise the future stars of children’s fiction and has the ability to turn popular authors into bestsellers.

Today I am delighted to share a guest post by John Moore & Neetols, creators of Ditching Saskia, one of the titles shortlisted in the Older Readers category.

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John:

At first, the idea for this book was simply: ‘What if a teenage boy tried to summon his dead mum for support but accidentally summoned someone entirely different?’
From there, I started thinking about who would be the worst possible person for him to summon in that situation – which led me to Saskia, an annoying kid with an opinion on everything, whether she was qualified to have one or not.

The story grew from this premise, exploring grief and our relationship with the dead through Damian, who is also trying to fit in at a new school. Saskia was always meant to reflect his mum, even if that wasn’t immediately obvious. While Damian struggles with uncovering the truth about his mother, Saskia pushes back against how everyone has turned her into a far more sanitised version of the scruffy, irritating person she is.

Despite having some heavy themes, I still wanted the book to be fun and embrace the silliness of the central pairing’s relationship. It’s in these moments that we get to see how two people struggling can really help each other in their lowest moments.

The final question I landed on was: ‘What if Saskia isn’t who Damian wanted, but who he needed at that moment?’

Neetols:

My biggest challenge when John handed me the script was figuring out how to translate everything visually. Ditching Saskia is my first graphic novel, and prior to this I didn’t have any experience in making longer form comics. So, I approached it the only way I knew how: imagining the story as a film and that I was the cameraman following these characters in their day-to-day lives.

Right away, even before the script was finalised, John and I wanted the setting to include a wooded area. Twin Peaks, Life is Strange and Dark became inspirations for the environmental design. We wanted that spooky small-town vibe which is why I settled for a mostly monochrome and slightly unpolished art direction.

I also took a lot of inspiration for panelling from Alfred Hitchcock’s storyboards by making each panel look as cinematic as possible. Along the way, these inspirations from horror and heavy drama became reflected in Damian’s love of horror movies.

Designing the characters was another fun challenge. Damian proved to be a little difficult. Eventually, I designed him to be half-Filipino. Mainly because I wanted to draw more Southeast Asian characters, to reflect my culture, but also because Filipinos place a huge importance on family ties, and I wondered how that would impact Damian and his situation, having only his grandfather for guidance.

As for Saskia, she was easy enough. She had to look like a rowdy kid but also innocent. Putting her in an oversized coat made her look like a little kid playing dress-up, which captures Saskia’s character of constantly putting on a brave face. The goal was to have them contrast each other, with Saskia wild and playful beside Damian’s more subdued nature.

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Children across the UK are encouraged to get involved. Copies of the books can be purchased at a discount from our partner supplier Heath Books here [link https://www.heathbooks.co.uk/federation-of-childrens-book-groups-childrens-book-award-2025/] and online voting will be opened at the conclusion of the blog tour. The deadline for voting is Friday 9th May and category winners and the overall winner of the most popular children’s book published in 2024 will be announced at a ceremony in Birmingham on 7th June, attended by representatives from all our local groups and livestreamed on the FCBG YouTube channel.

I should like to thank the FCBG for inviting me to take part in this tour. Don’t forget to check out the other stops and to watch out for the eventual winners announcement in June!