Stewart’s book was praised by Martin as “bold, bright and beautiful” picture book that “leaps off the page”. The Girl of Ink and Stars beat strong competition for the overall award from Lizzy Stewart’s There’s a Tiger in the Garden, which won the category for illustrated books, and Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence, which took the prize for older fiction. The £5,000 prize champions new and emerging talent in children’s writing and is unique in that it is voted for solely by booksellers. “It is always exciting when we see this level of outstanding talent in a new writer, and Kiran has crafted a mesmerising world full of myths, magic and adventure that evokes an atmosphere akin to Pullman’s His Dark Materials,” she said. Judge Florentyna Martin, who is Waterstones’ buyer for children’s books, described the novel as a joy to read. I couldn’t have asked for a better start for my career.” “No matter what the future brings, I’ll have done this. But this feels different, this feels like I’ve done a good thing,” she said. “Normally in my head, when something good happens, there is that voice saying ‘you don’t deserve it’. When her best friend Lupa disappears into a forbidden forest, she volunteers to find her using the island’s myths and the maps given to her by her father.Īfter the ceremony on Thursday night, Millwood Hargrave, who is a graduate of Cambridge and Oxford and was a Barbican Young Poet, told the Guardian that she had not expected to win and felt “very grateful and happy”. She lives on the island of Joya, which is reigned over by a strict governor. The book tells the story of cartographer’s daughter Isabella Riosse. “It’s a story that’s quite timeless, and I expect people will be reading it in years to come,” he said, adding that it represented the “heart” of the chain’s mission, which is to promote “good, old-fashioned storytelling”. Influenced by Philip Pullman’s The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, the book was described by Waterstones managing director James Daunt as “wonderful”.