‘Unsettling’ coming-of-age tale wins Waterstones book prize

Annabel Pitcher’s Ketchup Clouds tells story of girl’s correspondence with killer

An “unsettling” story about a teenage girl’s secret letters to a murderer has won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.

Author Annabel Pitcher said she was inspired by her own correspondence with an inmate on death row.

Prize organizers described Ketchup Clouds as a “classic coming-of-age story,” despite not being “most obvious subject.”

It revolves around Zoe, a teenage girl so overcome with guilt that she begins writing to a murderer on death row in a U.S. prison to unburden herself.

It was inspired in part by a “brief period” Pitcher spent writing to an inmate on death row through an Amnesty International scheme when she was 18, in protest against capital punishment.

Pitcher, an Oxford graduate nominated for the Carnegie Medal for her first novel My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, was placed first in both the teenage category and overall, receiving the $10,000 prize Thursday at a ceremony in London.

There were 18 books on the short list for the main award.

Rebecca Cobb won the picture book category for younger children for Lunchtime, a short tale about a girl who does not want to eat the meal.

R.J. Palacio’s Wonder, an “unsentimental” story about the “ugly reaction” to physical disability, won the award for best fiction for five- to 12-year-olds.

“It is an original and daring piece of writing.” JAMES DAUNT, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF WATERSTONES

This year’s short list for the teenage category included six books, with themes ranging from a tragic death in a car crash to a Third World War waged in cyberspace. The managing director of Waterstones, James Daunt, said: “Ketchup Clouds is an extraordinarily compelling read.

“It is an original and daring piece of writing, quite different to the fantastic and the futuristic that characterizes so much of teenage fiction writing today. It deserves great success.”

Melissa Cox, buyer of new children’s titles at the store, said: “It may not sound the most obvious subject for a teen bestseller — a girl writing to a condemned prisoner confessing her own dark secret — but Ketchup Clouds is a classic coming-of-age story featuring death, betrayal and redemption.

“Annabel Pitcher’s handling of the subject is beautifully wrought and peppered with humour, layering the everyday teen experience with the extraordinary and traumatic. Pitcher is a genuine literary star.”

Pitcher, a 30-year-old former secondary school teacher who lives in Yorkshire, has been nominated for 25 awards since her debut in March 2011.

Earlier this year, she said of her book: “The strange thing about writing to someone you’ve never met, someone who has done something wrong, is that you become far more open about your own life and flaws than you would do with a friend. Because you’ll never meet them, you can tell them anything.

“That’s when I knew that Zoe had to write to a criminal on death row.”