A 21-year old author has won one of the leading awards for children's fiction in Scotland.
Ross Collins, Alex McCall and Cathy MacPhail have today been announced as winners of the 2015 Scottish Children's Book Awards.
Two of the three winning books explore the subject of robots, with Alex McCall's Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens winning in the Younger Readers category, for children ages 8 to 11.
McCall, 21, based in Kintore in Aberdeenshire, wrote the novel in six months after being inspired when author Caroline Clough visited his school in 2013.
He is currently studying Filmmaking and Screenwriting at the University of the West of Scotland in Ayr.
The sequel, Revenge of the Giant Robot Chickens, will be published by Kelpies in July.
He said: "There's something of a feeling of coming full circle here.
"This is my first book and it got published through the Kelpies Prize.
"But the only reason that I found out about the Kelpies Prize is through a previous winning author coming to my school, through the Scottish Book Trust's Live Literature Fund.
"So while I'm delighted to win I also feel very lucky that Scottish Book Trust exists in the first place - being able to go into school and meet the children that you are writing for is fantastic enough as it is. Knowing that those kids have voted for you makes it even better."
Each winning book receives £3,000, the Scottish Children's Book Awards are voted for by children and are run by Scottish Book Trust and funded by Creative Scotland.
Glasgow-based author and illustrator Ross Collins won the Bookbug Reader's (3-7 yrs) category for the illustrations in picture book Robot Rumpus, written by Sean Taylor.
Collins attended Primary and Secondary school in Shawlands and then studied illustration at Glasgow School of Art, where he won the Macmillan children's book prize in his final year. H
He also works in character development for animators such as Disney and is a regular at the Edinburgh Book Festival.
The illustrator said: "I'm delighted to win the Scottish Children's Book Award with 'Robot Rumpus!'. It's always amazing to hear about the thousands of children who have read, debated and reviewed the books - it makes this such a special award to win."
Greenock-based author Cathy MacPhail, also a previous winner of two Scottish Children's Book Awards (in 2006 for Roxy's Baby and in 2010 for Grass) won the Older Readers (12-16 yrs) category for her young adult thriller Mosi's War. Published by Bloomsbury, it is a novel set in Glasgow which explores the world of child soldiers.
She said: "I am absolutely delighted to have won the Scottish Children's Book Award...again
"How brilliant is that There are so many awards now for children's books, and all of them worthy, but for me, this is the best because it is all down to the children."
The total prize fund is £12,000, with the shortlisted authors and illustrators receiving £500 per book, and the winning authors and illustrators receiving £3,000 per book.
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