Melville House Books

A good disposal of a prize fund today: Alison Flood reports in The Guardian that the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award has been given to a Palestinian organisation that promotes literacy among children. The prize, which was begun seven years ago in memory of the creator of Pippi Longstocking, is intended to promote interest in children’s literature around the world and is worth £422,000. The Tamer Institute for Community Education was established in 1989 to meet the educational needs of Palestinians during the first intifada. It works in Gaza and the West Bank to offer alternatives to formal education. The judges praised the organisers’ “perseverance, audacity and resourcefulness” under difficult circumstances. Runners-up Quentin Blake, Eva Ibbotson and Michael Morpurgo can console themselves with the reflection that they could hardly lose out to a better cause.