John Fardell, Lari Don and Keith Gray have been named as this year’s winners for the 2009 Royal Mail Awards, Scotland’s largest children’s Book Prize which is voted for exclusively by Scottish children themselves.

Author/Illustrator John Fardell won the Early Years category (0-7) for his first picture book Manfred the Baddie (Quercus), First-time author Lari Don won the Younger Readers category (8-11) for First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts (Floris Books) and best-selling teen fiction author Keith Gray won the Older Readers category (12-16) for Ostrich Boys (Random House). They will each receive £3.000.

Record numbers of children took part in the voting process this year, with nearly 30,000 children from all over Scotland actively involved in the awards compared to 18,000 in 2008 and just over 10,000 in 2007. Over 15,000 votes were cast from every single Scottish education authority, from Dumfries and Galloway to Shetland.