Blue Peter Book Award “Winner of Winners” Goes to “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”
Wizarding World Digital celebrated World Book Day with a special announcement! It announced the “Winner of Winners” for the Blue Peter Book Award: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
The Blue Peter Book Award recognizes a fan favorite book of the year, which is voted on by children in the United Kingdom. The award has been given to various books every year for the past 20 years. Each of the two categories, Best Story and Best Book with Facts, has one winning book each year. Some of the previous winners include The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf (2019), Real-Life Mysteries: Can You Explain the Unexplained? by Susan Martineau (2018), The Considine Curse by Gareth P. Jones (2012), and many more fan favorites.
In celebration of the 20th anniversary of the award, a new category was introduced: Winner of Winners. Philosopher’s Stone was first given the Blue Peter Book Award in 2001, making it eligible for the Winner of Winners category.
A panel of experts created a top ten list from the many books that have won the award, and Blue Peter’s audience voted on their favorite from there: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The following books were also included in the top 10:
- The Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Raúf
- The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson
- Matilda by Roald Dahl
- Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve
- The Outlaw Varjak Paw by S.F. Said
- Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
- Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
- The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson
- You’re a Bad Man, Mr. Gum! by Andy Stanton
Blue Peter held a contest for Best Children’s Book of the past decade back in 2012. The only Harry Potter book up for the prize was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but interestingly, it lost to none other than Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. While this definitely came as a surprise to fans of Rowling’s books, seeing this huge win for the Potter series eight years later more than makes up for the loss.
With this award, it becomes even more clear that Harry Potter is growing up just as well with the newest generation of readers as it did with the first. It may even be more popular and loved now than it was then!
