The twelve shortlisted children's books were selected after independent booksellers voted on them from a list of nominations put forth by publishers. Independent bookshop customers will decide the fates of the authors when they cast their votes between now and 31 August. Winners will be announced in early September 2012 after the public vote has closed.
Scarrow has appeared on several shortlists for his TIME RIDERS series including the 2011 Shortlist for the Independent Booksellers' Week Book Award and the Hampshire Book Award for TIME RIDERS: DOOMSDAY CODE, the 2010 Shortlist for the Galaxy National Book Awards - Book of the Year, and the 2010/2011 Shortlist for the Northern Ireland Book Award. Scarrow won both the Catalyst Book Award and the Red House Children's Book Award for Older Readers in 2011 for his book TIME RIDERS.
Previous recipients of the Independent Booksellers' Week Book Award include ARTEMIS FOUL AND THE ATLANTIS COMPLEX by Eoin Colfer in 2011, and RUNNING WILD by Michael Morpurgo in 2010.
Praise for the TIMERIDERS SERIES:
'Every time I finish a TimeRiders book I sit back and marvel at the quality of Alex Scarrow's storytelling.' -- Bookzone review
'TIMERIDERS has the quintessential ingredient that makes you crave the next book and be willing to queue at midnight for it.' -- The Booklet
'I look forward to few books as much as these and I am so pleased to find that the fifth TIMERIDERS novel GATES OF ROME is quite possibly the best.' -- For Winter Nights Blog
'Action packed, addictive, and with the perfect amount of humour.' -- Ryan, Empire of Books
'The book is yet another brilliant and relentlessly rip roaring page turner!' -- Tej, Goodreads Reader Review