A Cork writer has\u00a0been recognised for her creativity after winning an award at the KPMG Children\u2019s Books Ireland Awards.<\/p>\n
Caroline O\u2019Donoghue, who released\u00a0the novel The Rachel Incident in 2023 and hosts the Sentimental Garbage podcast, was announced as winner of the judges\u2019 special award at the ceremony for her 2025 book Skipshock.<\/p>\n
A young-adult science-fiction story that takes the reader on a train from Cork to a world of different time zones, Skipshock explores multilayered power dynamics and an electrifying romance.<\/p>\n
It is an exciting time for Ms O’Donoghue, with The Rachel Incident currently being filmed for TV across the city and UCC \u2014 it has been dubbed Cork\u2019s answer to Normal People.<\/p>\n
The Children\u2019s Books Ireland Awards were announced by Rick O\u2019Shea at a ceremony held in Merrion Square, in partnership with International Literature Festival Dublin. A total of six awards were presented to authors and illustrators.<\/p>\n
Children’s Books Ireland chief executive Elaina Ryan said that children\u2019s literature is evolving and the winners this year reflect that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe winning titles are deeply imaginative and original, and by turns side splittingly funny and incredibly moving.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a joy to see neurodivergent characters so strongly represented in this inclusive selection of excellent books.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re proud to celebrate the authors, illustrators and publishers behind the books, and offer them our warmest congratulations.”<\/p>\n
\n Children\u2019s Books Ireland Awards 2026 winners:\n <\/p>\n
\n Book of the Year Award 2026: Don’t Trust Fish! by Neil Sharpson and Dan Santat (Andersen Press)<\/p>\n
\n Honour Award for Fiction: My Name is Jodie Jones by Emma Shevah (David Fickling Books) <\/p>\n
\n Honour Award for Illustration: This That What by Katy Ashworth and illustrated by Colleen Larmour (Puffin)<\/p>\n
\n The Eil\u00eds Dillon Award: The Doomsday Club by Kevin Moran (The O’Brien Press)<\/p>\n
\n Judges’ Special Award: Skipshock by Caroline O’Donoghue (Walker Books)<\/p>\n
\n KPMG Junior Juries’ Award: Solo by Gr\u00e1inne O’Brien (Little Island Books)<\/p>\n
\n KPMG Reading Hero Award: Caoilfhionn Carlin <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cork writer has\u00a0been recognised for her creativity after winning an award at the KPMG Children\u2019s Books Ireland…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[80566,61,60,43],"class_list":["post-465501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-books-younger-readers","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}