Royal Society Young People's Book Prize 2025

Well, hello there everyone. It was strong. I think we CAN GO STRONGER. HELLO THERE EVERYONE. — [screaming] [cheering] — That's what I like. That's a proper Yorkshire hello. Lovely stuff. Well, hello to everyone here at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford. To those of you who are right here in the room with us and those of you of course who are watching in your schools, in your classrooms, perhaps you're at home. I did see one person cuz they've locked the doors you see for us today. There was one person just scaling the wall trying to get in and peek through a window. Spoiler alert, there's no windows in this room. You've got to be in here to watch it or of course watching through a computer screen perhaps. And we are all incredibly excited to be here for our brilliant award ceremony recognizing the Royal Society's Young People's Book Prize 2025. There's a lot of energy in this room today. Give me a cheer if YOU ARE EXCITED. — [cheering] — I AM feeding off that energy. Did you notice that it's always the teachers who cheer the loudest? You think it's going to be the kids but it's the teachers cuz they love a day off. For them, this is a holiday day. They are abs- and I speak from experience. My wife is a teacher, okay? And she actually went to the trouble of having a baby last year just to get the time off. I mean of course there is the sort of the never-ending love and companionship that a baby brings but mainly it was for the 10 months. But yeah, so we're very excited to be here. I am thrilled to be here just like you. Unlike you, I've decided to show how thrilled I am by coming dressed like I'm going on a boating holiday in the 1920s. Um don't know exactly why. Oh, in fact, I was at the seaside yesterday and I was walking along one of those you know you get those like long wooden walkways out to the sea and I was just walking along and I just heard this voice constantly saying to me Ben, you must dress as an Agatha Christie villain. I thought that's what they mean by peer pressure. Sorry. Sorry about that. It's a terrible joke to start things with particularly cuz I did witness and you're not going to like this I'm afraid. I did witness an awful accident whilst I was stood on that pier. There was a red boat and a blue boat crashed into each other. I'm afraid to say both crews were marooned. All right, I'm getting word in my ear. Move on from the dad jokes. I'm not even wearing an earpiece. That's just my inner monologue telling me push things on now. Yes, I am I'm going to move on to the real reason that we're here now. It's not even me, believe it or not. No, in actual fact, it's something far more important than that. It's this incredible book prize that we're honoring today and I must say I've always been an avid reader myself. Genuinely loved books, devoured them as a youngster. Had to go to the doctor about it eventually. Put me on a food-based diet. But I have always just loved reading. It's been a huge cornerstone of my life. I've always been a fact [clears throat] fan. So non-fiction was my genre of choice. I remember going on long car journeys with my family reading these amazing books and I'd be learning about tectonic plates or fossils or space travel which you might think oh my parents would love that, right? The only problem was I did tend to get carsick when I read. So the cost of my curious mind was my dad having to hose down the interior of the car every other weekend. But hey, it's got me to where I am today on this stage talking about something that I absolutely love and I know that all of you love as well. And speaking of getting our hands dirty or at least my dad having to get his hands dirty, I was wandering around the museum earlier today seeing all of you who have joined us get up to all sorts of incredible science activities. It was brilliant to see. Absolutely loved it. Hopefully you enjoyed as well. It feels like a fitting place to be doing it and a fitting occasion as well. And even if you're joining us right now online perhaps and you weren't able to be here in Bradford today, maybe you are celebrating with a viewing party. Hopefully those parties are going fantastically. All I would ask is that you save me a bit of cake. I think that's a very small price. But right now we are going to be moving on to talk a little bit more about the Young People's Book Prize itself and the phenomenal books that we find on its shortlist. Now I want to take you back to prehistory particularly for you guys all the way to 1988 when the Royal Society awarded its first children's book prize to encourage the writing, publishing and of course reading of brilliant, interesting science books for young people just like you. The judging process begins with a panel of five judges who whittled down hundreds of books to a shortlist of just

six. And this year's adult judging panel was chaired by Professor Tamzin Mather who is a professor of Earth Sciences and get this a volcano expert. I mean how cool is that job? I mean technically volcanoes are very hot. I know that but you get what I'm saying. It's still a very cool job. She was also joined by brain scientist Dr. Bettina Ipp, award-winning children's author and illustrator Helen Cooper, Hollywood science advisor and dinosaur expert Steve Brusatte and primary school teacher and science lead Vicky Walsh. So many incredible people there. They're like the science judging panel Avengers all coming together for the greater good. And I think you'll agree they selected some amazing books too and we're very lucky to have most of our judging panel with us today. So please everyone that they're sat around here. You'll probably recognize them. Please say a big hello to Tamzin, Bettina, Helen and Vicky. Hello. They are going to be joining us a little bit later on to announce our winner. But of course it wasn't just our expert panel who was helping us decide. Once the adult judges had their say, the task of choosing the actual winner was handed over to the real experts and that is you guys. Yes, schools up and down the country were sent our judging packs with information and activities all to do with the six shortlisted books. They actually went to 606 schools, libraries and youth groups across the UK. I know it would have been a tough time making that decision but I'm sure you had a great time doing it as well because these are brilliant books and they're such fun to get stuck into. And today we're going to be drawing the prize to a close by crowning the winner of our Young People's Book Prize 2025 and I cannot wait. I'm sure you can't either. We will soon be hearing from the shortlisting panel about what it was like to choose their favorite books. We'll also be finding out the winner of our judging panel's video competition. So stay tuned for that as well. But first before we get to the grand reveal, it's time to get stuck into this year's amazing shortlist and meet some of those authors and illustrators. I'm going to invite them onto the stage very shortly. As I do, please keep that round of applause going and we'll get all of them up here. So first of all, representing Green, the story of planet life of plant life on our planet, please welcome to the stage illustrator Emily Sutton. — [cheering] — Thank you very much, Emily. We've also got Patience author Rachel Williams. — Joining them is The History of Information author Chris Orton and contributor Luned Park. Also with us today, The Rocks Book author Nancy Dickmann. — We're also joined by The Wildlife of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals author Mike Barfield. — And last but not least and with a very special guest of her own, The Animal Body Book author JESS FRENCH. — AMAZING. JESS, I'M GOING TO HAND THAT TO YOU unless your special associate wants to hold it. — A brilliant warm welcome to you all. Thank you for joining us here in Bradford today. First of all, congratulations for the nominations to all of you. I think one more big round of applause for all of our nominees. We'll be finding out who takes home that top prize shortly. But before that, we've had some incredible questions sent in from children up and down the country who want to know all about your books, the process of writing them and what it took to get to this point. So let's get cracking, shall we? The first question is for you, Jess. You of course wrote The Animal Body Book and I'm very excited about this answer cuz I've had some insider information about what goes into this. Where did you get all the information from? Asks Cayden who is aged 10. Yeah, so my book is all about the insides of animal bodies. And so obviously I had to look inside animal bodies. Luckily for me, my job is that I'm a vet and so on a regular basis if I'm operating on animals, I get to look inside [clears throat] their bodies and that's one way that we learn about what their bodies look like on the inside and also after they die

we have to do very often have to do something called a postmortem where we look inside it's a bit like a sort of detective work where you're looking inside to see what went wrong and why they died and as a zoo vet I've had to do this on quite a lot of incredible species and actually last weekend I did a postmortem on a lion. Can I be the first to say that's raw-some? — [clears throat] — And the last to say I assume but yeah — thank you very much what an amazing job and speaking of amazing things Mike the author of the wildlife of dinosaurs we've had this question come in I think this is a really interesting question I'm fascinated by this from Duke's secondary school why did you choose to write this book like a cartoon? Well that's a great question and thank you for posing it I am obsessed with comics are there any other comic fans out there? Yay! Now when I was your age which is quite a long time ago I'm afraid there were lots of British comics there was the Dandy Wizard and Chips I won't go through a whole list the only one left is the Beano and I've been obsessed with comics since I was your age Tintin I love Tintin books and the opportunity to convey information in that way for me and to make jokes at the same time this is a dream job really I'm so lucky to be doing this as a career and um it's an opportunity to make jokes and it's very good because you get tiny bits of information into a comic and they're very opinionated I'm very lucky because I work with some brilliant illustrators sadly one of them Paula who illustrated the wildlife of dinosaurs she can't be here with us today she's in Australia which is about as far away as you can get from here sadly but that's why I just obsessed with comics I read them still I have a pile by the bed when I go to bed at night and I read through those and I read Tintin still and that's why I think it's just a fantastic medium for conveying information and laughter which is what my books hopefully do so if you did vote for them thank you. Amazing and thank you for that brilliant answer Mike you just showed us the show reading a comic could get you onto a stage like this fantastic all right and next question is for Nancy Dickman who wrote the rocks book Nancy this one comes from New Road Primary who asks what is the most fascinating rock you've ever seen? This is a fantastic question there are so many fantastic rocks in the world and I tried to put as many of them as I could into the book my winner in terms of ones that I've actually seen myself has got to be the Petrified Forest in Arizona in the US so you hear Petrified Forest you think it's going to be trees and it is but they're fossil trees so they're not standing they're these tree trunks lying on the ground broken into chunks the trees grew during the early Triassic so just when dinosaurs were getting going so like you know dinosaurs would have looked at these trees but over the years they've been turned into rock and so they're no longer living thing they're rocks but you can see like all the rings and you can see the texture of the bark and they just look like trees but they're not they're secret rocks and that's why I find them fascinating. What a brilliant answer and who saw that coming the best rock that you've seen is a tree amazing thank you very much Nancy next up from the history of information we have Chris Horton and Looney Park thanks for being up here today guys we've got a question which I love cuz it feels like it could be very wide ranging from Florence age 10 how did you find out so much information even from the past? Yeah um well actually our book was based on this course from UC Berkeley a college in America and I listened to that um uh those lectures very long time ago in 2006 when they they put them all online and I just got absolutely fascinated by this and I asked the lecturers could they help me write a book and they were very kind and they gave me all the reading materials and we we researched it together but yeah it's taken us 17 years to make this book so it's been a very long time to get — to finish this book so we're yeah we're uh very glad to to have finished this I mean I'm not going to hold my breath for the sequel then but no that's an amazing achievement and look what 17 years worth of work has got you right here onto this stage and shortlisted for this prize fantastic okay can we move on over to Rachel please from Patience Rachel Williams here's a question from Appleton Academy they want to know what gave you the idea to write anecdotes to describe science? Well Patience is actually a kind of

partner book to a book I wrote a few years ago called Slow Down and it was all about the things that you see every day like pollination or how sunshine works but you're too busy because you're rushing about so Patience does something that's different to that and it's about how long things take and my kids started asking me you know how long is a human life and how long does it take for your heart to beat and pump blood all around your body and how long does it take for a rainforest to grow so this book kind of came from kids questions and I also I'm just going to answer the other question that you guys asked me are you patient and the answer is not really so the book was a lovely way of for me to explore how good things take time. I mean it's good job yours didn't take 17 years to write cuz that would not work for someone who's not patient wouldn't it amazing and we've got last but not least on the end there Emily Sutton from the green from green the story of plant life on our planet thank you so much for joining us Emily you were the illustrator of this brilliant book a Park Road School wants to know how did you draw those pictures? So with all my books I like to start with a sketchbook so I had a big sketchbook that is handmade by friend of mine and every book I try and have a different sketchbook so this one I started out with lots of sketches and because the book starts with things that obviously I could never see because they were millions and millions of years ago had to also look a lot of reference and the author Nicola who's an amazing writer she also used to be a TV presenter and she's so passionate about natural history so she had loads and loads of tips for me and where to find the best reference images so I actually learned a lot which is one of my favorite parts of being an illustrator is you get to learn things that you would never naturally learn I guess unless maybe you've got excellent teachers at school so that was really fun and then once I did the sketches I did lots of tests just to see how to create lots of different textures cuz I do everything by hand I don't use like computers or anything in my work but I like to have a real variety of mark making to keep the images looking exciting so I tested out lots of things using different materials and then I did some rough for each page you do like a rough spread you see how the text is going to fit in and then I once I'd got all the roughs done and I'd consulted with my publishers and everyone was happy that's when I get to do the really fun bit which is the finished art and then I used inks and watercolors and bits of collage and use like paper to print get lots of texture yeah so I just did that and that's kind of how it goes Amazing I love hearing about an artist process as well cuz they're always different always fascinating well before we say huge congratulations to all of our nominees and let them leave the stage for a little while we do have one question this is a general question always fascinates me so anyone can feel free to answer this do you have any advice for aspiring authors or illustrators? I would say always keep a sketchbook I was told when I was about 15 or 16 you know if you get a sketchbook and just write all your ideas in there do sketches test out drawings all of that will be really useful and I've kept all my sketchbooks from that time and I really wish I actually was keeping a sketchbook from before then cuz I would love to know what I was thinking when I was your age so I would say keep a sketchbook and just write any ideas that you have in that it's really helpful I've got one for you cost nothing join your local library read as many books as you can doesn't matter what they are just absorb what other people do go to the library you could go after here go and join and then you can borrow the books for free you can go through the ones you don't even have to take them away you could read them there but immersing yourself in books is the most important way of becoming either a writer or indeed an illustrator there's loads of picture books as well picture books have never been more brilliant than incredibly intelligent people gifted people coming out of art schools and working in the field of nonfiction now they've raised the bar on nonfiction it's such an incredible way all of us here our books are beautifully illustrated it's fantastic so I'd say go to the library and borrow books read them take them home read them that's it really — [snorts] — Totally agree with what they've both said. They would have been my top two other tips. The other thing is, don't be

afraid of failing. You've heard some of these books took us a really, really long time to write. Sometimes we write multiple versions of a book before the final thing that you guys ever get to see. And there is it's not a straight line to success. So, if you write something and it doesn't come out the way that you hoped that it would, see that as an opportunity to try again. Every time you fail, you learn something new. So, don't be afraid of getting it wrong because I mean, you for a start, you can't really get it wrong. But to get to the perfect end product that is how you see it in your head takes time and takes getting it wrong a bunch of times first. Amazing. Thank you to Jess and thank you to all of our shortlisted authors there. Well, it's come time now to let them leave the stage and sort of enjoy the rest of the award ceremony and until the time comes. But whilst they go, please can we hear it one more time for all of our brilliant illustrators and authors that are nominated for our prize today. I'm sure you'll agree all of their books are worthy winners, but there can be only one and we are edging closer to finding out which it is. But in the meantime, speaking of winners, don't forget that as well as our book prize, we also have our coveted young people's video competition winners to announce because on top of voting for the winning book, the judging panels in schools up and down the country were also tasked with filming a video all about the shortlisted books and the judging process that they went through themselves. The best videos are in with a chance of winning book tokens for their schools. So, before we find out who's taking home that prize, let's hear from some of the judging panels for the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize 2025. Hello and welcome. This is the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize shortlist. Today, we are very proud to announce our school's winner. Let's have a little peek at the books. All right. This book is all about people in science, which I absolutely love. They talk about how the language has developed, how humans have developed. The cover is so bright and vibrant. This is a brilliant book because of the vibrant illustrations and it's so informative. How are you feeling tonight, Terry? Oh, it's a lovely night, isn't it? You got any favorites? This book is called Green. It's about a plant's life on planet Earth. One of the ways this book stood out to us is because it's vibrant in color and it's super easy to read. — It has very colorful illustrations and they are very detailed and clear. When I read it today, it made me wonder if there was a missed opportunity for getting the word chlorophyll in there. But actually, when I read it with my daughter, she began to wonder what makes plants green, which actually led to a conversation around the word chlorophyll. I like this book because it has a nice front cover and also the pictures are really nice. This book amazes with incredible facts about gemstones and fossils and incredible illustrations. It makes science book fun and exciting. This book made me want to be a zoologist. The next book is Ocean. It's similar to Green, but it tells you what happens in the span of 12 days and what happens in a minute. In a minute, your heart can beat 60 to 100 times, which a minute doesn't feel very long. But for many animals, it can feel like an absolute lifetime. So, my favorite book so far has been the Animal Body Book cuz it has the really amusing life-size models. It has loads of detailed pictures and talk all about animals. It amazed us and made us think and learn at the same time. An awesome combination. I like the animals and what they look like from the inside. But he does not like the dissection part. What's that? I really enjoyed reading The Royal Life of Dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. It used its vibrant colors and beautiful descriptions. Overall, it is very child-friendly and easy to follow. Oh my goodness, there's dinosaurs everywhere. The last book is my favorite book because the illustrations are fun and the writing's easy to follow and understand. So, this is my favorite book. Dinosaurs ruled the Earth until the asteroid hit and they also come to extinction and left fossils for us to find out. Perhaps it isn't about making sure that all the answers are found within a book, but that a book creates some curiosity and gives you just enough information to

get curious and to go and explore other resources. The court will adjourn while I make my decision. All rise. It looks like that could happen to you and me. There's only one thing left to say. We're going to announce the winners. I really hope it's about us. Oh, yeah. So excited when we're on top. Let's hear it for our judging panel videos. How fantastic was that? You could see how much of a great time all of our judging panels in schools and youth groups up and down the country were having. And I must say as well, that last clip in particular, it's pretty humbling when you see your job being done better by a rock. Um But yeah, absolutely brilliant. Such creativity. The the writers, the illustrators, the scientists of the future right there. Well, now it is time to announce the winner of our video competition. So, to do that, please welcome on stage the chair of our shortlisting judges, volcano expert and Royal Society fellow, PROFESSOR TAMSIN MATHER. — HI, BEN. HELLO, EVERYBODY. What an amazing set of videos we have this year. We just got a flavor of them there. I had such a lot of fun judging the videos and I think that all our young superstars had a really good time appearing in them as well. I certainly got that vibe. Uh so much variety in terms of the different styles that people chose to represent the process. Uh it was a real inspiration watching all of you. Um We had a really super hard time chairing, but we have I think we have some of our young stars or some of the schools that participated in the audience today. So, can we have a big shout-out to the Co-op Academy in Grange, Harwood Church of England Primary, and Park Road, please. Woo! Amazing job. Um what stars you all are. Um without further ado, we are going to find out who the winners are. Um I'm very excited. This is my first time opening a golden envelope. So, I'm pretty excited myself. So, let's open it up and see. Uh just to remind you, the winners get book tokens for their schools. So, a really fantastic prize and I think, you know, also a lot of fun when you've done it. Stuck in the envelope. Um So, in third place, we have St. Augustine's Catholic Primary School in the Birmingham area. Uh and they did a fantastic job. You saw a bit of a rumble going on in the video there. So, they did an absolutely fantastic job there. In second place, we have Tynecastle High School in the Edinburgh area. They uh did an enormously amazing process that they documented including having a book off for the entire school in culmination for the prize. And then, drumroll, please. In first place, we have Connor Junior High School in Northern Ireland. And we saw a little snap of their video there where they had put a judge in charge of the uh of the lawyers who were presenting the different books. And it was an amazingly effective way to uh present the exciting judging process that they had gone through. So, thank you so much to all the video. Honestly, it was the best day I've had in months watching all your videos. I absolutely loved it. Um and uh thank you to all our young judges for all your hard work you put in to making this prize so successful. Amazing. Well, let's give our winners and everyone a huge round of applause. Absolutely brilliant. I could watch that video over and over as well, Tamsin. Well, thank — I was laughing so much I was crying. Well, I heard when that volcano started erupting, I'm sure I heard a whoop from down there. Um Well, thank you for joining us and for announcing that. I'm going to ask Tamsin to stay with us here on stage now because I'd like to invite the other members of this year's shortlisting panel to help announce the winner of the Young People's Book Prize 2025. So, please give a huge round of applause as they join us on stage, too. Brain scientist, Dr. Bettina Ipp. Award-winning children's author and illustrator, Helen Cooper. — And primary school teacher and science lead, Vicky Walsh. — [cheering] — And the Vicky Walls fan club everyone. Uh Fantastic. Great to have you all here with us. Uh now, we are going to get

round to announcing the prize very shortly. We've got some slightly anxious authors and illustrators down here who've been waiting a long time. But, before we do that, I do have a question for you each just to talk uh about the process uh and about the work that you do as well. Uh so, Helen, I'd like to come to you first, please. Um you're an award-winning illustrator, but what makes for good illustrations in science books? Well, it's very hard for me to tell you this in a very short time. So, I want to tell you about three things beginning with D that I think are really important. Now, the first thing that an illustrator has to do with a science book is they have to describe whatever the book's about because some of the people reading the book won't have seen that thing before. So, you've got to describe it really well. The other thing is that people your age are really, really good at reading pictures. Sometimes better than reading words. So, what we feel as illustrators is that the illustrations can do what we call the heavy lifting. They can describe some of the things that are hard to understand in pictures better than you can describe them in words. So, that's the first really important job. The second really important job is to do with design. That's my second D word. Um so, we're thinking about how the illustrations work across the page, and that can include color. But, actually, in a non-fiction book you've probably got lots of different bits of text across the page, and you want people to read them in an order that makes that they make most sense. So, the illustrator's job is to make the illustrations work across the page so that you read them in the right order. And if those illustrations muddle the reader up, that's not a good job. So, all the the books here, they made us read the book in the right order. But, there's one other thing that I think is really important, particularly in a science book because science is very creative. It is about creating things. It's about the excitement of discovery. But, when you come to put that in words, it's that sometimes lose a bit of that excitement. So, what illustration can do is they can bring delight, the same sort of delight that I think science scientists might get when they first discover something. So, what we were looking for in these books, it was also books that delighted the delighted us, and all these six books did delight us, and I hope they delighted you all, too. Thank you for that, Helena. Fantastic answer. Uh Vicky, I'd like to come to you next. Now, I mentioned that you're a teacher, and I'm guessing that you might have brought some of your pupils with you. Is that right? — I have. These are actually my science club. Um so, I teach year one, but these have been in my class, and they are my very enthusiastic scientists who come on a Tuesday evening, and we do lots of great science experiments as well as judging the books as well. We made that part of our club. A Tuesday evening. I love that dedication. Let's hear it for the science club, everyone. Well, Vicky, my question for you is obviously uh yourself and your pupils helped to judge this prize for us. How did you find it? What did you enjoy about the process? Well, uh we've been doing the um the book awards at my school for a couple of years. So, it's been really exciting. This year obviously was extra exciting for me cuz I got to be on the judging panel. And we're very lucky as a judges that I got to have 40 books before we whittled them down, and they are all at school, and I put them out in the corridor, and the children were going along and I thought they'd help me to whittle it down, and putting post-it notes didn't help me at all because they just loved the books. The quality this year was just fantastic. Um but, the excitement when we get that box of six, and we open them up, and we see what has been obviously I knew this year, which was really lovely, but it's so exciting, and there was a bit of a battle over some of the books were very quickly favorites. Um but, it's always a really exciting time. Um we have a big display in the hall so the rest of the school know what we're doing as well. So, it's a big project each year for us. We really love being part of it. Yeah, well, we don't mind an argument or two when it comes to making these decisions. It shows people's passion, and that's what these kind of books can really bring to people. Uh I'd like to come to yourself now, Bettina, if I might. Uh you're a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford. Can you tell us I mean, I imagine you know a fair few facts yourself anyway, but is there one thing that really stuck out for you from reading these books? Oh, wow. That is a really difficult question. I mean, all of these books are packed with amazing facts. Um there is one fact uh embedded in the book Green that made me just breathe a bit slower, and it's got to do with this cross-section of a leaf, which is absolutely beautiful. Um it showed the cross-section, and it showed these little holes on top of the leaf, and it

made me think, "Oh, wow. These leaves are breathing, you know? " And it's a bit like you're opening a clock, and you can see the clockwork inside. It's that kind of wow moment. So, I really appreciated the fact that um you take your time to look at something really small, and you see this entire world inside. That is a brilliant answer and a great analogy with the clock. So, I'm going to think that every time I see a tree, I'm going to work in like clockwork. Fantastic. Uh and coming to yourself, Tamsin, obviously we've already heard how much you enjoyed judging our video judges. Um but, in terms of the books for the prize itself, what was it that you were looking for specifically when you were whittling down to that short list of six? We had a really tough job. So, we started off with about 100 books and then got it down to a long list of 42, and then the judges and myself whittled it down to the six. And all these shortlisted uh books here today are massive winners cuz the competition was really stiff to get onto that short list. And we had some passionate debates in the room that day. So, we we love your books, and they're all incredible. And we're really pleased to see that the young people have, too. Um we were looking firstly for uh the scientific content that was that was accurate and good, and we were excited by it. And I think that then we were looking for the way that the text and the illustrations work together uh to tell that story. And I learned so much from having Helen on the panel uh in terms of what she's just been saying uh about how you go about that cuz that's not something that um as a scientist I would know too much about. And then I think it was captured by one of the teachers uh in the video there as well. We were looking for books that we felt would make young people want to go further, want to learn more, uh and maybe inspire them to do other things and to read other scientific books. And this prize was really it is a really important thing. It's I would say one of the most important things that the Royal Society does is inspiring the next generation of scientists, and this is an absolute cornerstone of that, this prize. We are so pleased to have had the engagement from the schools and be able to give out all the free books. On a personal note, it's really uh really important to me. I struggled to read as a young person for various reasons, and scientific factual books were my kind of way in. Actually, I think Usborne space books and things like that. We had so much less choice in those days. So, it all the books were just amazing, and we had such a good time. Yeah, what a brilliant message as well. I mean, it speaks to the quality that we're blessed with it at right now in terms of these great books for younger readers, but also the ability to inspire and transform people's thinking and maybe what they go on to do in the future. That's what we're talking about. The prize is important, of course, but what those books do is even more important. Um well, we've talked about it for long enough. We are now at that moment that you've all been waiting for. I have the golden envelope here in my hands. Uh I'm going to announce the winner very shortly, but we've already had a practice doing a knee-top drumroll. I think this requires another from our audience. So, let's build it up. We're getting a bit louder. A bit louder still. It's coming to a crescendo. I can now reveal that the winner of the Young People's Book Prize 2025 is The Wildlife of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals by Mike Barfield and illustrator Paula Bossio. Please, Mike, join us up here on stage. We have Bettina to hand over your trophy. I think we might have Mike and special guest. So, Mike, congratulations first of all. Uh we've got a microphone for you here, and uh Bettina has your trophy as well. — one moment before you do that, Bettina. Thank you so much. That's brilliant. — I genuinely I'm kind of emotional guy, and um I'm really moved. Thank you very much. It's a sign of the quality, Mike. — Yeah, yeah. Wow, look. When I was your age at school, no one ever told me I could be on a stage like this having written books and drawn them as well. And if you stick at it, look what you can get. You can get a really heavy, beautiful glass trophy, and the feeling that I have inside me now, which is so exciting. I have a few thank you to apologies for being so emotional. Sorry. I have a few thank you to read out um because this is not a solo process. You don't get to win this prize. I'd like to thank all those teachers who ever taught me anything, the people who inspired me to become a scientist and

then to become a writer and a cartoonist as well. And um I'm at the age where I need glasses, so I should just get my glasses out. Ah, I'm shaking. I'm genuinely shaking. First off, big thank you to everyone who voted for my book. I thank you so much. But give yourselves a round of applause if you did. More importantly perhaps, I'd also like to thank all those people who didn't vote for the book but took part with so excited to be involved in this competition. All you young people in your schools that gave up your time uh to come along to read the books, have an opinion about it because um that's really important. That's probably the most important thing because you are the scientists of the future. Amongst you there, amongst all those people will be the people who will be the scientists of the future. And uh then they've never been needed more. Um big thanks to all the judges on the panel and to the Royal Society. Yeah, it's a fantastic organization. It's been going for a very long time and I wish it a very long future too. Um My commiserations to all the other people all the other shortlisted books cuz as I explained to them earlier, this is a real moment of déjà vu for me. I actually had a book shortlisted back in 2019. I came here. I sat pretty much in the same seat as I sat there 6 years ago and I didn't win. Um so good luck with the next 6 years all of you. And I mean I wish you the very best wishes. Um with regard to the book uh itself, um I'm sorry that uh as I explained, Paula Bossio who is the illustrator can't be here cuz she's in Australia which as I say is about as far away from here as you can get. But the books that I write um are pretty much all done in conjunction with some fantastic illustrators. And I think when you see the book on the shelf in the shop, you don't know what the words are inside it. You see the illustration. Illustrators now do so much of the heavy lifting for books about science and technology. And I think we owe them authors owe them a huge debt. So a big thank you to all the Give away all the illustrators a round of applause. Yes. Thank you. Um I'm very lucky the book is published by a fantastic publishing house called Buster. Um and I know they're watching. Ha ha ha. I hope they're having a little drink or two, tea or coffee of course. Um and I'd like to thank them. They're an absolutely wonderful organization of publishers to work for. Um I'm going to do a quick name check. Gary, Jack, John, Lauren, Francis, Alice, Kira, Leslie, and many more with a big tip of the hat for the book for the dinosaur expert who was called Dougal and made uh all the science in it which is really important as you say. That's the first and foremost important thing. Uh made sure that was all spot on. And paleontologist sadly Steve uh the dinosaur expert can't be here with us today. But to get that past him, that's the guy that does the dino facts, the correct in Jurassic World films. I mean what an honor to have been accepted by him. I mean I'm really grateful. Thank you. Um I'd also like to thank uh my agent Anne who's in the audience here. Very important if you want to be a writer or an illustrator to get a good agent. And Anne is one of the very very best. Um finally, the book I'm finishing now. Finally, the book is dedicated if you see at the start um to uh my son, my oldest son. I've only got one actually. He's the only son. Jake with an apology to him cuz he's now 28 years old for not having written it 20 years earlier. Right, that's the dedication of the book. But this award which you're now holding for me, thank you very very much. I'd like to dedicate uh to my wife Jess who's Jake's mom of course um because come October we'll have been married for 30 years. We'll have been together for 35 years. And if that doesn't deserve an award for her, well, I don't know what does. So thank you very much. I'm really grateful. I'm grateful to everybody. Thank you so much. Um I never thought I'd be standing here. Fantastic. Let's hear it one more time for our winning author Mike Barfield and also the illustrator Paula Bossio who couldn't be here today who created the Wildlife of Dinosaurs and Other Prehistoric Animals. Congratulations. Beautiful courtesy to finish Mike. And thank you also to our panel of esteemed judges as well for doing a fantastic job. It's a real pleasure. Thank you very much, Mike. Um well, thank you all. It's been uh it's been fantastic. And uh thank you to all of you as well. Today it's uh been a thrilling day, hugely exciting. Uh as we said, congratulations to uh our winners of the book prize, video prize. Uh we also have a few thanks to make as well. So thank you so much to our generous donors who've made this prize possible each and every year. Thank you of course to all our shortlisted and illustrators as well as their publishers. Thank you to everyone who's joined us right here in Bradford uh and everyone watching online as well. And thank you to judging panels across the UK for all of their brilliant work in choosing this year's winner. We do have a winner now, but I think the real winners are all of you for being able to

take part in this fantastic process, read some amazing books, and maybe pick up a few fascinating facts on the way. My name's Wayne. It's been a pleasure to have your company. We'll see you very soon. But for now, it's goodbye. Thank you.