We are absolutely delighted to be hosting a blog for this year's FCBG Children's Book Award Blog Tour. Our featured title is Octopus Shocktopus - the brilliantly bonkers picture book by Peter Bently and illustrated by Steven Lenton. It's one of four picture books on the FCBG 2022 shortlist and it's one our reviewers love!

We've been included on this tour since 2019 and we love supporting these awards. There are lots of other children's book awards (you can see all the Children's Book Awards 2020 Shortlists and Winners here) but the FCBG Children’s Book Award is the only national award voted for solely by children from start to finish. Members of the Federation of Children's Book Groups vote on the Longlist and then any children can vote on the Shortlist. 

So, like Toppsta, it recommends books which children truly enjoy, rather than those books which adults THINK children should be reading. And the great news is, thanks to the generosity of the publishers, nearly 12,000 books are donated to hospitals, women’s refuges, nurseries and disadvantaged schools by the voting groups at the end of the process. The overall winner of 2020’s CBA Book Award was D-Day Dog by Tom Palmer.

Scroll to the bottom of the page for information on how you can vote and a run down of this year's blog tour.

Discover more about Octopus Shocktopus below, plus read illustrator Steven Lenton's blog explaining how he came up with the bright and arresting visual style for this zingy and zany picture book.

Creating the visual style for Octopus Shocktopus 

By Steven Lenton

When Nosy Crow first sent me the text for Octopus Shocktopus I was really excited as it was written by one of the best authors in the business, Peter Bentley, whose ‘Great Dog Bottom Swap’ is in my top five picture books of all time.I had also collaborated with Peter on two previous picture books ‘The Hundred and One Dalmatians’ and our World Book Day title ‘Cruella and Cadpig’ so I knew we worked really well together.

But when I first read it, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it! It was quite different to any other picture book I had worked on or read before, so I started to make some sketches to see how I could bring it to life in my mind, I always think visually so had to get something down on the page immediately.

Once I started sketching the Octopus on top of the house it just clicked in my mind and I fell in love with the whole idea, the gentle themes within the seemingly simple story, the family and cast of characters, and that great ending with lots of other octopi arriving in the village; it all made sense and I snapped up the offer to illustrate the book.

I wanted the village and villagers to have a classic, timeless feel and took inspiration from some of my favourite childhood television shows, Trumpton, Chigley and Portland Bill which had charmingly simple character designs and a lovely warm, reassuring feel.I also revisited the soft pastel rainbow palettes of 80’s cartoons She-Ra, Jem and The Holograms and The Wuzzles, as I knew when all the octopi land at the end, they would form a lovely rainbow of colour. The work of late great illustrator Roger Duvoisin whose geometric yet charming dwellings really captured my imagination, gave me inspiration for the seaside houses for the occupants of Octopus Shocktopus.

The main challenge, once we had set the style of the village and characters, was the fact that the octopus is literally on top of the house, in the same position pretty much throughout the entire book, so making the octopus the right size so they could do all the actions required in the text like pushing a car and clearing the snow, was paramount. We also had to keep varying the angle and perspective of the house and octopus to make sure the pages didn’t look too repetitive and boring. We played around with the Octopus having a mouth, but decided to keep his expression solely in his eyes, eyebrows and body movements.

Once this was all set, it was time to go to final artwork and to colour it all in, which was great fun.I think my favourite spread is the Octotastic Christmas Tree - such a joy to design.

Now here’s a little secret…it wasn’t decided until just before we sent of the book to be printed that the Octopus was going to have a neon orange/pink Pantone colour – that lovely zingyness that readers love so much!

I got an email from designer Nia Roberts saying they the Nosy Crow team would love for the octopus to be a bright neon colour, and I thought this was a terrific idea! A few tweaks of the colours throughout the book to make sure the neon colour would sit nicely with the rest of the palette and ta-da! The neon octopus came to life on the cover and throughout the book to really make it pop!

Our book seems to have been a big hit with so many young readers and parents and I am so pleased that we have been included in the FCBG awards, so thank you to everyone who has voted for our octopus so far!

children's book award blog tour

 Any child up to the age of 18 can vote for their favourite books from the shortlist. Voting will open soon on the FCBG website and you can buy the books from Heath Books here.

If you'd like to follow other blogs on this year's blog tour, you can find them below.

picture books

2nd March - A Library Lady - Perdu by Richard Jones

4th March - Picture Book Perfect - Barbara Throws a Wobbler by Nadia Shireen

6th March - Toppsta - Octopus Shocktopus by Peter Bently and Steven Lenton

8th March - My Shelves Are Full - Stella and the Seagull by Georgina Stevens and Izzy Burton

younger readers 

13th March - Richreadalot - The Highland Falcon Thief by M.G. Leonard & Sam Sedgman, illustrated by Elisa Paganelli

15th March - Scope for Imagination - The Griffin Gate by Vashti Hardy, illustrated by Natalie Smillie

17th March - Lily and the Fae - Anisha, Accidental Detective by Serena Patel, illustrated by Emma McCann

older readers

21st March - Golden Book Girl - When the World Was Ours by Liz Kessler

23rd March - NotSoTweets - The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne by Jonathan Stroud

25th March -Eenalol - The Midnight Guardians by Ross Montgomery