Luck of the Irishy ... Louise Rennison has won the Roald Dahl funny prize for children aged seven to 14 for her book Withering Tights. Photograph: Linda Nylind
Louise Rennison's tale of a gawky teenager called Tallulah has taken this year's Roald Dahl funny prize. The Queen of Teen author beat Mr Stink by TV star David Walliams and Quentin Blake, Roald Dahl's own celebrated illustrator, to the title.
The prize was set up two years ago by the author Michael Rosen as part of his children's laureateship, and seeks to celebrate the books that make children laugh. As well as the seven-to-14 prize, it also recognises books in a six-and-under category, this year won by Louise Yates with the picturebook Dog Loves Books, about a dog who loves books so much he opens a bookshop. Yates, who said that she was inspired to become an illustrator by Quentin Blake, also beat her hero, who was in the running in the younger category with Angelica Sprocket's Pockets.
Rennison, who grew up in Leeds and also suffered the indignity of being told by her dancing teacher that it made her feel "physically sick" to see her on stage, said that she was "thrilled" to win the prize.
"It's lovely to win with Tallulah as she represents a different aspect of me from Georgia," said Rennison. "She's a more sensitive, gangly, Irishy type girl whereas Georgia is louder. She's been a bugger to get out of my head while I've been writing Tallulah. I've had to be tough on myself and edit her out, but the big change happened when I really began to remember my own experiences and the vulnerable feelings I had when I first went to performing arts college. Then she became genuinely me rather than Georgia. I found my feet at college by developing my skills at comedy – and Tallulah is closely following that path."
Michael Rosen described the book as "a wry inside view of what it feels like to be a gawky, witty girl who knows what's going on around her, is detached enough to comment on it all, but carried along in the flow all the same. There's a gag on every page with loads of funny situations and people."
"She is so good at what she does," added Philip Ardagh, fellow judge and last year's winner. "It is well written with a really good plot, some great funny situations, humorous characters you warm to, and humorous dialogue – and she has brought all those elements together successfully."
Also shortlisted in Rennison's category were The Ogre of Oglefort by the late Eva Ibbotson, which had also been shortlisted for the Guardian children's fiction prize, The Clumsies Make a Mess by Sorrel Anderson, Einstein's Underpants and How They Saved the World by Anthony McGowan, and The Incredible Luck of Alfie Pluck by Jamie Rix.
In the younger category, Dog Loves Books was one of a number of titles starring animals. One Smart Fish by Chris Wormell is a picture book about evolution, while Dogs Don't Do Ballet makes a hero of a pug in a tutu who saves the day at the Royal Ballet. Goats and tiger cubs are the order of the day in Jeanne Willis's The Nanny Goat's Kid while Lee Weatherley's The Scariest Monster in the World tackles a bad case of the hiccups.
Speaking about the phenomenon at the shortlist stage, Rosen said: "The great advantage of animals is that they can be a surrogate child but do lots of things a child can't. If a dog in a book engages with humans they can still retain their dogginess and that can be funny too. Animals in children's books are like puppets – you can put voices and thoughts in them that you can't put in human beings. Part of the trick of all fiction is playing with proximity and distance, and animals allow you to do that."
The winners were awarded their prize of £2,500 in a ceremony in London where judge Nicolette Jones also gave a tribute to Eva Ibbotson. Also on the judging panel were illustrator Bruce Ingman and comedian Shappi Khorsandi.
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