Author Sean Taylor has refused to accept the prize money after winning the Nestlé Children’s Book Prize 2007. Taylor’s picture book When A Monster is Born, illustrated by Nick Sharratt, took the Gold Award in the under-fives category. But Taylor said he did not feel able to accept his half of the £2,500 prize, citing “questions surrounding Nestlé’s marketing of breast-milk substitutes.”

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AllAfrica.com report on two booksellers, Egyptian citizens in Sudan who have been charged with insulting Islam. A Sudanese court sentenced Abdel Fattah El-Sadany (30 years old) and Mahrous Mohammed Abdel-Azim (30 years old) to imprisonment for six months on charges of insulting the Islamic religion on the grounds that they had distributed a book about Al-Sayeda Aisha (the Prophet Mohammed’s wife) during their participation in the Khartoum International Book Fair.
The defendants were given “one of the fastest trials in history” - were found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison. The defendants did not have a lawyer.

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The Washington Post offers five books to throw across the room. Top of the list is Atonement.

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