Shortlist Spotlight: Tad by Benji Davies

Between now and the winner announcement on 25th May we will be looking at each of our fabulous shortlisted books and their authors and illustrators in turn (although in no particular order).

Our second shortlisted story is Tad by Benji Davies, published by HarperCollins. We’re thrilled to have Benji back on the shortlist for the second time – he went on to win OBP in 2014 with The Storm Whale. Not long to wait now to find out if he will become OBP’s first double winner…

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What’s the Story?

Meet Tad.

She’s the smallest tadpole in a big pond, and lives there with all her tadbrothers and tadsisters.

Although something else lives there too… BIG BLUB! And when everyone else starts to disappear, Tad starts to wonder if Big Blub will get her too…

Or is everyone else going somewhere else; somewhere better? And if so, will Tad ever get there too?

A big story about a tiny tadpole – about growing up, branching out, and taking a leap into life.

About the Author:

Benji Davies was born and raised in Peterborough. After studying animation at university he spread his creative wings, working on a variety of illustration and animation projects. His picture books have won numerous awards, including Oscar’s Book Prize, an AOI World Illustration Prize and the Sainsbury’s Children’s Book Prize. He lives and works in London.

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What the Judges said:

‘A wonderful coming of age tale of adventure, and nature’ – Dermot O’Leary

As if this wasn’t enough, Benji has kindly made the following video for us, telling us all about the book! Please follow the link below to listen - it gives a fantastic insight to a very plucky tadpole, and the brain of her amazing creator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0TAWW1arNc&feature=youtu.be