Global, a graphic novel about hope in the face of climate change, by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano, has been longlisted for this year’s Wainwright Prize for Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation.
The Wainwright Prize, which aims to celebrate nature and our environment and inform readers of the threats the earth currently faces. Approaching its second decade amidst ongoing conversations around our environment – reflected in the continued growth in the publishing of nature and conservation writing – The Wainwright Prize’s role in amplifying these conversations is as urgent as ever.
With a new government now in office, The Wainwright Prize hopes to provide a platform to bring many of the issues covered in the longlist to the forefront of political discourse.
A total of 35 books have been longlisted across the Prize’s three categories – the Prize for Nature Writing, the Prize for Writing on Conservation, and the Prize for Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation. Each longlist was selected from submissions that demonstrated the diversity and strength of nature writing, including authors such as Olivia Laing, Rebecca Smith, Hamza Yassin, Caroline Lucas, Marchelle Farrell, Katherine Rundell, Eoin Colfer and Hannah Gold.
Global, by Eoin Colfer, previously Irish Children’s Laureate, and Andrew Donkin, illustrated by Giovanni Rigano, the trio previously creators of the brilliant Illegal, a superb graphic novel about about one boy’s epic journey across Africa to Europe.
Published by Hodder Children’s Books, Global is the only graphic novel longlisted in the Prize for Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation category this year; a powerful, hopeful and timely story about the real effects of climate change, centred on two young people on different continents whose lives are catastrophically changed by global warming.
Yuki lives in an increasingly deserted Inuit township in Nova Scotia. One day, she sets out into the wilderness of the Arctic tundra planning to photograph a rare grolar bear (a terrifying grizzly-polar crossbreed created by climate change) – if she can prove it’s a grolar, she can protect it from being shot. With only her faithful dog for company and adrift on a fragment of melting glacier, she finds herself being stalked across the changing wilderness by a starving grolar bear, with only her wits and her harpoon to keep her alive…
Sami lives in a fishing village on the Bay of Bengal. But because of the ever-rising ocean level, each day is a struggle to survive. One night, Sami sets out to return to his old, submerged family home, alone. He takes a deep breath and dives beneath the moonlit waters, hoping to find his past… But a cyclone is coming …
The judging panels for the three categories bring together industry expertise, experience from some of the UK’s largest nature charities, authors, activists, booksellers, and scientific researchers. For the Children’s Prize, these are CBeebies Presenter Joanna Adeyinka-Burford, Children’s Author and Consultant Uju Asika, Editor of The Week Junior, Dan Green, Blue Peter Presenter and Children’s Author Konnie Huq, Children’s Illustrator and Author Frann Preston Gannon, and Roisin Taylor, Co-Director at UK Youth for Nature.
The Prize’s shortlists will be announced on 15th August 2024, and the winners will be announced on Wednesday 11th September at the Camley Street Natural Park, near Kings Cross in London.
The prize was founded and is still supported by, both the Alfred Wainwright Estate & Frances Lincoln, publisher of the Wainwright Guides. The £7,500 prize fund will be shared and presented to the authors of the three winning books.
The 2024 Wainwright Prize for Children’s Writing on Nature and Conservation Longlist
• Foxlight, Katya Balen (Bloomsbury Children’s)
• The Observologist: A Handbook for Mounting Very Small Scientific Expeditions, Giselle Clarkson (Gecko Press)
• Global: A Graphic Novel Adventure About Hope in the Face of Climate Change, Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin, Illustrated by Giovanni Rigano (Hodder Children’s Books)
• Skrimsli, Nicola Davies, Illustrated by Jackie Morris (Firefly Press)
• The Golden Hare, Paddy Donnelly (The O’Brien Press)
• Finding Bear, Hannah Gold, Illustrated by Levi Pinfold (HarperCollins Children’s)
• Fly – A Children’s Guide to Birds, David Lindo, Illustrated by Sara Boccaccini Meadows (Magic Cat Publishing)
• Geomancer: In The Shadow of the Wolf Queen, Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Orion Children’s Books)
• The Panda’s Child, Jackie Morris, Illustrated by Cathy Fisher (Otter-Barry Books)
• Quiet, Tom Percival, Illustrated by Richard Jones (Simon & Schuster Children’s)
• Impossible Creatures, Katherine Rundell (Bloomsbury Children’s)
• Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back – An Illustrated Guide, Isabella Tree, Illustrated by Angela Harding (Macmillan Children’s Books)
• Hachette has published a number of Teaching Resources for Global, available here
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Current British Publishers, British Comics - Graphic Novels, Comics, Creating Comics, downthetubes Comics News
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