Posted Tuesday June 9th 2009 by Natasha Worswick

The news is out! Earlier today, Booktrust announced the identity of the new Children's Laureate, whose job it is to champion children's love of language, reading and especially a lifelong love of books. And I'm delighted to see who has been chosen as the sixth person to hold the post – Anthony Browne!

If you don't already know, Anthony Browne is the author of Gorilla, Willy the Wimp and Silly Billy among many other illustrated books for children.

An enormous amount of work goes into choosing who should be the Children's Laureate every two years, with organisations that represent critics, librarians, booksellers, and writers themselves all having a say, alongside children themselves of course. And I don't think they could have made a better choice.

Anthony Browne inherits the role from Michael Rosen, who has done a tremendous amount for children's books and literacy, working especially hard to support poetry in schools and in children's lives generally.

 

Read an interview with Anthony Browne on the Booktrust children's site, where you'll also find reviews of many of his titles.

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