 Hello, I'm really hoping that we are live and that people can hear me. We can certainly see all that you are out there. So I'm gonna get started and someone will stop me if I'm doing this all wrong. But good afternoon to everyone tuning in from classrooms and from living rooms all over the UK and actually from all over the world. This is so exciting. Welcome to the award ceremony for the Royal Society's Young People Book Prize 2022. I'm Lindsay Russell. I hosted Blue Peter for about nine years and I work in radio, do the one show. And I've done this as well for a couple of years and it is truly one of the best bits of my year. And today is really, really exciting because after months of really hard work, intense judging we're gonna find out who your school and over 500 schools across the UK have selected as winner for the Young People's Book Prize 2022. I nearly said three. The six shortlisted books have launched all of you on a quest to meet scientists and engineers in past and present history and find answers to the world's most pressing challenges and questions and discover a wide range of life forms on earth from the incredible world of microbes to the wolves of Yellowstone Park. It really has been all in there, hasn't it? It's been jam-packed with information and fun. So joining us today, hopefully you can see them because they're gonna be answering your questions live very shortly. There they are. Give us a wave, guys. All our incredible shortlisted authors and illustrators and we're gonna meet them properly very soon. They've all told me they're really excited and they want the silliest and most fun questions you can come up with, okay? Yes, thumbs up there, right. If you would like to put your questions to our authors today, by the way, it is really easy. All we need to do is ask your teacher or a responsible adult to go to slido.com and then you use the code hashtag YPBP22. So Young People's Book Prize 22. Please enter your school or group name. I can already see them flying through, so thank you. So enter your school or group name when you're asked for your name, then I'll be able to read out later. And also, if you're on Twitter, you can get involved using the hashtag YoungSciBooks. Now, finally, we've prepared a short quiz with questions about the shortlisted books for you today. It's not a test, but make sure you've got a pen and paper with you because this is gonna get really fun and make sure you've downloaded the quiz worksheet so you can write down all your answers. Or you can just scribble them down. It's fine. There are no rules today. We do have live captioning available as well this afternoon. So if you would like to see these, please click. Let me get this right. The subtitles or closed captions button that's in the bottom bar of the YouTube video. Hopefully you can see that. Any problems, let us know. Right, so let's get started. The Royal Society has awarded a children's book prize since 1988. That is a long time ago, isn't it guys? That's 35 years ago. And through this time, it's celebrated interesting, colorful, and engaging science books for young people, just like all of you watching this today. And the Young People's Book Prize is made possible thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor. In June last year, our adult judging panel met virtually, they all met up to select the brilliant shortlist that ended up being judged by thousands of children. And this year's adult judging panel was chaired by big cat scientist, Alan Wilson, and featured Benidorm star, Nathan Bryan, and author Izzy Howell was there who won the Young People's Book Prize in 2020, as well as teacher, Catherine Pemberton, and evolutionary biologist, Tiffany Taylor. So really, really brilliant mix of fantastic people. Right, before we meet our authors, let's hear from all of them from our adult judging panel. Hello, my name is Catherine Pemberton. I'm a primary school teacher in South Devon, and I'm a fellow with the Primary Science Teaching Trust. I'm Tiffany Taylor. I'm a scientist at the University of Bath, and me and my lab group are really interested in using bacteria to understand how things evolve and adapt. Hi, I'm Izzy Howell. I'm a children's non-fiction author and the 2020 winner of the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize for my book, Cats React to Science Facts. As a child, I used to read every night at bedside. I tended to read fiction because I liked being part of other people's stories and adventures. I don't remember there being as many good science books when I was little, and I'm really pleased that now there's such a great choice of science reading. So my earliest memories of reading are bedtime stories with my parents, and it's something that I now get to enjoy with my own children. And I think that's why I love books that not only tell me the facts, but that also tell me this story, and that's because stories are just wonderful to share. For me, science is about the search for answers to our questions about the world. It can feed our curiosity and it can provide explanations for things we don't understand. And books can do a similar thing. They can take our brains all over the universe, revealing new ideas and revealing answers without us even having to leave the chair that we're sitting in. Great science needs imagination to be able to imagine beyond what we already know. It needs creativity to think of new ways to solve problems. It needs great storytelling to be able to tell your science to as many people as possible. And all the submissions this year did a beautiful job of bringing all these elements together. But hopefully they also put the spotlight on creativity in science and sends the message that science needs creative and imaginative thinkers. Some parts of science aren't practical or easy for young people to get involved within the classroom or at home, and that's where science books come in. A good science book will transport you to Yellowstone National Park, like in 14 Wolves, or up the shard, like how was that built, or even into the future, like Beatles for Breakfast. The young people discovering an interest or a passion for science through these books today will become the scientists of tomorrow. After a great start there, loved that. I always sit and watch that and go, why am I not a science writer? I wish I'd listened in science. All right, now we're gonna have a look at our quiz questions. I'm not obviously gonna give you the answers. I'm not gonna give you any hints yet, and we'll go through them at the end. So let's get started. Number one is how many species, how many types of microbe are there? And we're looking for roughly here. So is it A, a thousand, B, one million, or C, that's a massive number, one trillion. What do you reckon? Write down A, B, or C. Number two, I'm gonna whiz through these because you've got them in front of you. Number two is what is the most common eye color? It's one of those that you think you know, but do you? Is it A, green, B, brown, or C, blue? Number three, once wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone, which animals saw their numbers increase? And apparently more than one option could be correct here. See, might wanna circle a couple. Is it A, badgers, B, coyotes, C, rabbits, D, elks, or E, boxes, which were reintroduced in Yellowstone. Onto number four, we are whizzing people. Which of these is not a type of bridge? Which of these is not a type of bridge? Is it A, truss bridge, B, cantilever bridge, C, a beamer bridge, or D, a pontoon bridge, which is not a type of bridge. They all sound so real, don't they? Hope you were reading and focusing. Number five, which of these cutting edge types of transportation is already a reality? Is it A, magnetic levitation, maglev trains? Is it B, helium filled airships? Or is it C, electric flying taxis? What do you reckon? Which of these is already a reality? And last one now, which female scientist has an asteroid and a Mars rover named after her for helping discover the secret of life? Is it Catherine? She's not a person. Is it Caroline Herschel? Is it B, Rosalind Franklin? Or is it C, Mae Jemison? What do you reckon? Do you remember that from the book? So cool. I wish it was me. Okay, right, we've done our questions. Now we're gonna have a bit of a chat with our authors and do remember, I can see them all going do do do on the thing here, but if you'd like to put your questions to them, you need to ask your teacher or responsible adult to go to slido.com and then you use the code hashtag YPBP22. And then you can enter your school rule group name when it asks for your name. Please, by the way, don't be upset if your question isn't read out. We've got loads to get through. We've only got a few minutes to spend with each of our speakers. If I could make this a 15 hour chat marathon, I would. But we've gotta move fast today. Okay, here we go. The first order we're gonna be chatting to is Madeleine Finley, who wrote Beatles for Breakfast and other weird and wonderful ways to save the planet. Have a look. Okay, hopefully you can all see and hear that. So where is Madeleine come forward? There she is. How are you doing today? Oh, great, amazing, I'm very excited. I'm really excited as well. You're kicking things off, so you're gonna show everyone how it's done today. Let's start and chat about the book. I feel like I have to ask you the most obvious question, which is what actually inspired you to write this book? Where did that little seed of an idea come from? Well, you know, the environment and everything that's happening can be really scary, but there are so many exciting things out there. And the more exciting ideas and technology I saw, I thought, I really wanna share these with everyone. Absolutely, what do you think we need to save the planet from? Like, putting you on the spot there, but what's the most important? Unfortunately, it is human habits. We're kind of saving it from ourselves, which is probably a good thing, because if we're causing the problems, it means that we can undo it as well. Absolutely, we've had a question come in here saying, how long did it actually take you to write the book? I'm always interested when I speak to different authors about what their process is. Do you go to the shed at the bottom of the garden? Do you just wash it all out in a week? Or does it take years? Like, what does it look like for you? Well, very handily for me this time, it was during lockdown. So I was trapped in my bedroom, typing with my laptop, but it took a few months. It's a long process and collecting all the different ideas and inventions and crazy things that are happening. So it was all that research, and then it was boiling it all down and typing up. So yeah, it was a few months of being locked away. And do you, I mean, so many people ask this, but do you get writer's block? Or once you've started with an idea, do you find that you just kind of go through it? Sometimes it can be like when you're painting and you get really in the zone when you're drawing something and the time can fly. You don't even realize how long it's been. But yeah, I do get writer's block. And so sometimes I have to go for a walk. Or often I'll read other people's books to try and get inspired again and kind of break past that block. I bet actually for you as well with a book like this, it's the other way round. So rather than writer's block, it's probably that you've got too much that you wanna say and too much that you wanna cram into the book. So how do you decide what things actually go in? Do you know, it was very, very hard because there are so many great things happening and so many incredible ideas. And there was tons I wanted to put in and I did have to really limit myself. But I decided by choosing the ones that I found most surprising or most exciting and also the ones where I thought that actually makes the world a better place. I wanna live in that future where that thing exists. We've got such a good question from Daniela here that kind of touches on that saying, what can I do at home to help the environment? That is such a good question, isn't it? It is a really great question because it's one we all think about all the time. What can I do? Because sometimes these problems can seem really big and it can seem hard to work out how to help at home. So I think some of the really great, simple things that you can do is have to think about the food that you're eating. So how much meat you're eating or how much dairy you have in your diet. Another thing is your clothes. I love buying clothes. We all do, it's really hard not to but there's incredible stuff in charity shops or sharing with your friends. And then the other thing as well, if you have any access to green space, parks or gardens, get out and see nature and fall in love with it because being in love with nature I think really helps inspire you to keep doing things. It's so true, couldn't agree more. And I'm so guilty of the clothes thing. It's so easy to do a fast fashion thing but it is terrible, isn't it? Had such a good question, where's she gone? And I know it was from Imogen and I've got to ask it. Yeah, Imogen from Willand School. Hi guys says, how did you do your research for this book? Like what's that process like? Well, luckily because in the rest of my job I talked to a lot of scientists. I already had a lot of ideas bubbling away but it's really about looking on the internet and speaking to people and finding out what they're doing because the internet is a treasure trove of cool science ideas if you know what to look for. It really is. I'm being told that we have to move on but I refuse. I've got to ask Jackie's question first. Who just says, quickly, love the title of your book. Did you choose it? You know, I worked together with someone, we were thinking Beatles for lunch, crickets for snacks. And then eventually we thought, Beatles for breakfast, that's the one. Well, look, if you're in your classroom today or even if you're in your living room, doesn't matter, I want you to just do a little round of applause there for Madeleine who's been absolutely brilliant. It's so good to meet you and massive good luck today. You can go relax now because you've got it done out of the way first. Right, next I'd like to introduce the author and illustrator of fantastically great women scientists and their stories, Kate Pankhurst. So there we go, Kate, here you are. Welcome. Hi there. How are you doing today? You excited, nervous? Yeah, super excited to have got to today and to hear what all the other authors and illustrators are saying actually and all these amazing questions that are coming through. They're so good, they're honestly the screens going like this, which is really great. So look, let's start with the book first. I feel like that's always a good place to start on a day like today. So have you written before about women who made history and women who saved the planet and how did you decide to write about women scientists specifically? Yeah, that's a really good question. So the great women scientists book and it came after I'd done a series of picture books where I did like one double page spread with a color illustration about an amazing woman from history who did something incredible. And then I had a lot of young readers saying I want to find out more information about these women. So we decided to do a chapter book version where you get a chapter about all these incredible women and science seemed a no-brainer for the first topic to explore because there's so many, oh, for lots of reasons really because I think it's really important to encourage more girls to kind of see themselves scientists and want to go into science jobs. And also there's just so many incredible stories of women scientists that you might not have heard of. Some of them you will have from the book but some of them I'd not heard of before. So it was great to kind of celebrate their stories and their achievements. Absolutely, as someone with both a granny and a mum who were both women scientists, you know, it's so, so great to have books like this and it is so important. We've had a really great question as well from Elsa who said, did these women inspire you? Like when you were writing it, we just like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. Yeah, absolutely. I think all the women in these books, the thing that kind of makes them stand out is that kind of determination not to give up when they were maybe told kind of, no, a woman can't do that sort of thing like, all right, you might be a really talented scientist but we're not gonna give you the Nobel Prize. But yeah, just that kind of refusal to give up and following their talent and their love for science and their love for discovery and doing it anyway even though they've faced a lot of barriers. Yeah, that loads of inspiring, lots of inspiration in there, definitely. Yeah, so writing a book like this must be a joy because how can you not be inspired? How can you not wanna kind of put pen to paper or be on your laptop researching? It must just be great. We've got a question here from Eddie, which I think is another quite interesting one about your writing process actually, just saying how do you actually get the motivation to write on a daily basis? Yeah, that's a really good question because I think you can spend a lot of time working on your own as an author and an illustrator and you can get a bit lost in kind of like, where do I begin, what should I draw first? But for me, before I do any writing because I'm also an illustrator, for me, I start with the illustrations. I'm really getting through my character, like the women from the book, I did lots and lots of sketches of them before I started writing about them. So I kind of got to know their world and it was kind of then the writing follows and flows a bit more easily really and slots into place. But I think like, I do have days where it is just tricky to do, but I find like a doodle doing some doodling about the women or just generally about some interesting things that are spotted that day and kind of freeze up my imagination and gets everything flowing onto the page. Do you love your job? Like are there days where you have to kind of pinch yourself and be like, I can't believe I get to, you know, research these women and do these doodles for a living? Yeah, definitely. That's it. And then you think, what else would I be doing if I wasn't doing this? I don't know. Yeah, definitely. I think I feel really, really lucky to do it. And, you know, I always loved drawing when I was a child, when I was at school. And I don't think I realized when I was at school that you could be an illustrator or you could be a writer. So yeah, it's still a bit of a pinch myself moment really that that's what I do all day for a living. When you're flicking through the book, I don't know if this is really unfair. You can say, go away, don't ask me this. But do you have a favorite scientist in there? Is there a page or a moment or a woman that you're especially kind of drawn to or proud of? Yeah, I think that's it. They're all kind of so special in their own way and you feel like you get to know these women as you write about them. You imagine like, oh, what would it be like to have been able to have a conversation with her? But I guess there's always ones that tune into your own interests. So I'm kind of really fascinated by space and space exploration. I just think it's bunkers that we're sat here and then there's a whole universe out there and there's all this mad stuff going on. So space, from the scientist book, I really was very inspired by Mae Jemison's story. So she was the first black woman to go into space. And it was, it all started from a childhood dream. She saw the first space missions on TV as a child and that stayed with her. And she never gave up on that dream and she did it. She made it to the stars. She reached for the stars and she got there. I love that. Well, covered in goosebumps now, thanks to you, Kate. So listen, massive good luck, great to chat. Sorry that we are having to race through, but it is so, so wonderful to meet you and good luck. Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you. Oh, it's so inspiring to read the stories of so many science pioneers. So up next, I'd like to introduce Catherine Barr and Jenny Desmond, who wrote and illustrated 14 Wolves. Have a look. So here we go. Hopefully you'll be able to see the dream team in a minute. So, ah, yeah, here we go, Catherine and Jenny. Guys, welcome. How are we feeling today? Very good. Thank you. So excited to be here and really, really proud. Well, you absolutely should be. Let's talk about this partnership because, you know, you're the first kind of pair that we're talking to today. And I bet so many people are interested to know how on earth this works. Like on a day-to-day basis, who does what? Who takes, you know, leadership or do you kind of switch it around? What does it kind of look like working together? Jenny, do you want to? Yeah, so how it works is, well, I don't know what happened on passion side, but I got handed Catherine's finished manuscript. So Catherine did everything at the beginning and I got handed the words. We had no contact together. It was the publisher Bloomsbury who showed me the text, asked me if I'd like to illustrate it. I loved it and couldn't wait. I was so excited. It's just, it's just right up my street with animals and the beautiful landscape. And then I work with the publisher on my own and occasionally they would send Catherine the sketches that I would do initially, which like this, hence the sketches. And then she'd approve them. And then once that was all approved, well, I assume Catherine, once that's all approved, then we do the final work and then she approves that as well. But we're not actually encouraged to even talk to each other during the whole process. That is so interesting. And it must be so, Catherine, for you, what was it like? I mean, have you guys actually met face-to-face? No, not yet, but we've planned coffees for ages. So we've talked a lot, but we've never actually met, but we will, we will. But for me, just seeing Jenny's amazing, I mean, seeing that incredible artwork for the story that I'd written, it's just, I mean, it just blew me away. I'd never seen anything quite like it. And all the children that I see in so many schools can never believe that it's not a photograph of a wolf. They're so intrigued by it. It's so stunning. I mean, I've just been incredibly proud to have Jenny's work illustrating this story. Yeah, I can see why. What an honour actually. Totally an honour. Yeah, those images bring it to life. So how did you do, then I'm gonna get, I can see so many questions. Eddie's on it again. He's asking, wait a minute, Eddie. How did you do the research for this book, Catherine? Like where did you start? It must be quite overwhelming at the beginning. Oh, it's so exciting. I love doing the research. And so I found, I mean, I talked to the people at Yellowstone Park, the team that works there, but also, and actually I'm gonna share a photograph that I received this week from Sean Jones, who was a wolf watcher who's based in the UK. And this week she went to Yellowstone Park and she took our book and, as promised, she took a photograph of herself in the Yellowstone Park with the book. So I met her, she lives in Oxford and we had a very, very, very long lunch talking about wolves and their behaviour. And she goes out and spends months every year watching the wolves in Yellowstone. And then I also talk, I've got a couple of pictures. I also talk to Leo Leckie, who's one of the scientists out there who knows all of the wolves in Yellowstone. Really, really well, I could ask him a million questions and it was just so interesting to talk to people directly involved in that story. And then that's the part of my work that I love so much is just, I have so many questions and just learning all of the stories of what it's like out in the park. Did you get to actually, did you get to actually go and visit or was it mostly like research and chats and that kind of thing? I haven't visited yet, which is, I know, I know. I haven't, but I plan to, I will go. I've got lots of plans to go. So yeah, I will be there, but not yet. No, it's all talking to a lot of people. I bet you are both actually itching to go. Now that you've worked on this book, I'm happy you're like, get me on a flight. Just quickly before we go, why is rewilding really important? You probably want to take this one, Catherine, like, because it really is, isn't it? It really is. And it's at a scale, really. It's sort of ecosystem landscapes. It's the big picture, really. And it's letting nature restore itself without a kind of planned outcome. So it's more just letting nature go and letting nature restore itself rather than, which is a sort of step beyond conservation, which is more traditionally about specific species or specific habitats with an outcome that you have in mind already. So it's letting nature go, really. Jenny, just quickly, the brilliant thing about your job is you must learn so much as you go along. Like, not only are you getting to do what you love, but you're also like reading an amazing book while you're at it. I really didn't know anything about wolves before getting this. So I had to do a huge amount of research and I've never been to Yellowstone either. So I actually went onto Google Street Map and explored Yellowstone on Google and through lots of books. And I just, I tried to read and watch loads of films about wolves and just watch, look at how they move and how they jump and leap and how they interact together. And looking carefully at their hair and how to sort of try and recreate them as accurately as possible. So by the end, I feel like I just had a real love affair with wolves. And I spent about nine months doing the illustrations on the book. So yeah, it's nine months of college wolves. It shows because it's beautiful and you've done a fantastic job, both of you as well, like the research and the hard work and the dedication you put in just kind of shines. So thank you so much to Catherine and Jenny. And thanks for taking us on such an exciting journey to Yellowstone as well. Feel like I've been there. Right, I'm going to take a little pause now because dozens of schools that have been involved in the judging process sent in little videos as part of the video competition. And in these videos, you've shared your opinions and your thoughts and just your final judgments about the books. This is so brilliant and we loved hearing all of these. So without further ado, let's hear from some of the judging panels for the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize 2022. I'm Duke and I'm part of the 2022 Royal Society Young People's Book Prize judging panel. Welcome to you, I've been here. Oh, I think I've fallen for this book. Now, this book is a very good book because it has good illustrations and tells you a lot about how like the Burj Khalifa was built, which is the tallest building in the world, if you didn't know. And did you know here on the Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest restaurant and it is a sushi restaurant. Mm, yummy breakfast. What are you doing here tonight? I'm eating a little chocolate. Why? A little chocolate. It's the best book in town. It might sound silly right now, but it will help us save the planet in the future. This book is suitable for any age-routing but the right colours draw new in. Overall, you can see lots of effort put into this book. I liked that it showed the world is not like Wonderland and like the reality of this world, that not everybody is safe, most people don't have lots of food to eat, most people aren't very rich. The world of my probe is very interesting, some dangerous, some helpful, and some weird. You should have read my book. It teaches you about Jan's virus and medicine. Are you going to help me? No, bye. I really like this book, not only because of its superb illustrations and its wonderful vocabulary, but how it entwines science and wildlife to a perfect story for younger kids to read. Children, today we are so lucky because Catch It! Crap is coming to talk to us about volcanoes. How does that happen? The volcano one floats and the other one doesn't. I really like that it like shines a light on women scientists who did not get enough credit where they should have gotten it. What I got out of the books was that I don't really read science books that often, I'm more a fantasy or just something out of this world. But after reading those books, I felt like I was going to read more of those books that we have in our library. It kind of opened my eyes a bit to see that it can be fun in a fact world. And the winner is... And the winner is... Our favourite book is... I loved watching that. All the videos we received were so, so fantastic. And in fact, they were so good and so fun to watch but the Royal Society are still pondering which ones will receive the book tokens for their schools and they're going to be in touch with the winners very shortly. But I know the authors watching that would have absolutely loved it. So thank you. Now I would like to introduce our next author. We're whizzing through Roma Agrawal and illustrator Katie Hickey, who worked together on the book. How was that built? Remember, you can still keep sending in your questions on slido.com, use the code YPBP22 and then enter your school or group name. But I'm loving them so far. Let's have a look at the book first. So guys, welcome. Do come and join me. There's Roma. How are you? And there's Katie. How are you guys doing today? You OK? Yeah, good. Really excited to be here. Thank you. Talk me through the book and what you decided to... I mean, how does your job work with deciding what to include, what not to include? You must have to be really strict with yourself. So I think that kind of the... Roma and I worked really well as a team. Like, she kind of... I loved the book and I loved all the information she was trying to get across. And she loved my kind of approach to it being very visual and very dynamic. I'm really keen on making sure that all books are kind of helping every child who learns different ways, whether that's visually or how you listen or whatever, to engage with stories and engage with information in the best way for them. So my approach to this book was just to make it as dynamic as possible. So we worked as a really good team for that. Similarly to Jenny, I got given the manuscript by my publisher, Loomsbury. And I hadn't met Roma. We hadn't talked about anything before. And as soon as I got the manuscript, I loved it. My dad is an engineer. So I've kind of always grown up with buildings. I've always lived in a house that's being renovated. So kind of aware, I've always been curious to be like, how is that working and why is it doing that? So I loved the idea straight away. And then actually Roma and I have met quite a few times and we did have quite a lot of in-person meetings. And it was sort of like over to you for the text, but like bearing in mind, giving enough space for the image and like some letting the images do some of the talking. But yeah, it worked really well. And I kind of, it was again, it was my lockdown baby. I spent probably about three months doing the artwork. Wow. So it's a huge project for you guys, isn't it? And just a brilliant collaboration as well. Roma, let's just see if we can hear you. Can you hear me now? Yeah. Sorry about that. My mic is too clever for its own good. And so are you clearly, because this book is brilliant. So how did you go about making buildings interesting for children? Because that is quite a tough task, isn't it? Because you see the word buildings thing, but actually it's stunning, it's beautiful, it's fascinating, aren't they? They are and we spend most of our lives inside buildings. So whether that's your home or your school or your place of work, we are inside buildings and they keep us safe, they keep us warm, hopefully. And I think that buildings have so many stories in it. So I live in a brick house that was built in 1905, for example. And I know about that. I know that it was bombed during the war. I also know that the bricks are made of clay and that that clay can be 50 million years old. So there's all of these amazing hidden stories in all of our structures. Wow. So we've got so many questions coming in. So clearly people are really interested about building. Elsa says, did you get to visit any of the buildings in your book? I'm sure you did. Tell us about, were there a few favourites? So not only did I get to visit most of the buildings in my book, but I built one of them, which is super cool because I am a structural engineer and I spent six years of my career working on the shard, which you can see Katie's beautiful drawing for on my screen. And so yeah, I got to see the shard like literally physically being built throughout its construction, which was amazing. That's right. I've dangled off the shard. So I'm badly built it properly. I've washed the windows when I was on Blue Peter. We've got another brilliant question here from Willand School that I've got to ask, saying out of all the buildings that you wrote about, which is your favourite? Is it even possible? I think my favourite is the Pantheon because I really love that it's 2000 years old and it's this absolutely beautiful hemisphere. But Katie, what do you think? I'm actually going to say the Pantheon as well because I'm always astonished by how big it is, but my second favourite is probably the Brooklyn Bridge because I just saw the science of the caissons. So interesting. And the history of it is amazing. Yeah. And just magic to look at as well, you know, to protect the point of view, isn't it? Yeah. We've only got a minute, but I have to ask this, but anyone watching who either wants to do what you do and is passionate about buildings or is one of the people that always is like jotting stuff down or trying to trace things or looking, because I've got little cousins that do this. They're always trying to photograph buildings so they can go home and sketch them. Do you guys have any quick little bits of advice on how to end up doing what we do now or becoming structural engineers or anything like that? And so for me as an engineer, what I would encourage you to do is to try and look beyond what you can see and try and imagine what's inside the pane of glass or inside the brick or below the building, because I think that's where you find the most interesting stories. And for me, just generally about being an illustrator, I would say practice, practice, practice. You will get better the more you do it, but also be yourself. And you know, if you like to draw buildings in a certain way that's different from other peoples, that is great and that's fine. Well, put beautifully, both of you, very inspiring. Thank you so, so much and good luck today. Right, we are whizzing through. I would now like to introduce Jackie McCann and Aaron Cushley who worked together to bring us If the World Were a Hundred People. Let's have a look. Fab, so here we go, Jackie and Aaron should be joining me. The other dream team, here they are. We've got so many great little collaborations going on today. Hey guys, how are we? How are we feeling? Very good, thank you. Lovely to be here. How are you doing, Aaron? You all right? Really good, but inundated with all the information and stories being come from the people before us, it's really great listening to them. It is so interesting, isn't it? And what I love this year as well is like all the books, all the illustrations, totally different, which in itself is incredibly inspiring as a reader, it's what you want, isn't it? So let's talk to you first, Jackie. Where did you get the idea of representing the eight... Is it eight billion? Eight billion. Huge number. Huge number. And then you pushed them down to 100, how do you do that? Well, I was talking to the designer at the publisher who published the book and we were talking about the world being a global village and then asking ourselves what kind of questions would children want to know about the world? And then thinking that actually the numbers are just so enormous. The population was nearly eight billion at the time, but it didn't really make any sense because even for us, it was really difficult trying to imagine, you know, how many people have got blue eyes or brown eyes or how many people go to school, don't go to school. The numbers were just too big. And so we thought, well, if we make it just a hundred people, then it's actually, you get to ask... You can ask quite much more easy to understand questions and it makes it easier for children to understand, not just children, it actually makes it easier for adults to kind of get a sense of what's... You know, some of the big things that are going on in the world, but the numbers are more manageable, except you have to still in the back of your head remember that each person represents actually 80 million people. Yeah, yeah, that is the only bit of work that we as the reader kind of have to do and have to bear in mind. Aaron, talk to me about your kind of process with this book from start to finish. Well, first, it's much like Katie said beforehand and Jenny about getting the manuscript beforehand, but my one was a bit different because all the facts had to be double checked and everything. My information came in through as the spreads, as I was doing them. So the most daunting thing was probably just 100 people. So that's going to be a lot. And it was just basically a lot of drawn people, a lot of people watching, just seeing actually how many people that I could fit on a spread. It was actually quite fun coming up with the people and them had to change a few people around a few times because there were some characters that would be coming a bit too much recurring characters on each spread. So I had to pull back on that, but just, I mean, the facts and statistics coming through were just, some of them were really enlightening and then some of them, as people have probably seen, have been pretty, they can be pretty like Brian Hartman if you could think of a way, oh, I didn't really know that. I mean, I think Jackie was just a big help and just conveying all that information in words and then just, I had to put the images to that. I don't know how you did it because you've got my worst job in the world, Aaron, which is drawing people. Honestly, apart from a stick man, I've got nothing. So I think you're mega talented. You've had a question come in from Imogen saying, how do you find out all your facts, which I think is a really interesting one actually to touch on Jackie, isn't it? Yeah, I mean, a lot of research, an awful lot of research and some of these questions, you can go on the internet and the internet is the most amazing resource, but sometimes you find the same fact, it's written 10 different ways and with 10 different numbers and so you have to keep digging and digging until you're sure that you've got the right one. It's really important to trust your sources. So big agencies like the United Nations, there are big organizations in the world who spend a lot of time gathering all this kind of information and then distilling it and they put it on their websites and they're really, really happy to share it because they want this knowledge to be spread. So yeah, a lot of research, but a lot of really good organizations that are on the, in the front of the book. And so any teachers or children who want to find out more themselves can go there and find those links. Both James and Jacob asked the same question. So I think we've got a very, very quickly finished and actually we've run out of time, but did you enjoy writing the book? Did you enjoy working on the book, both of you? Massively, massively. Learned so much, so much. And you learned so much reading it as well. So guys, thank you so much. Good luck. Thank you for chatting with us. Really, really enjoyed it. And we are moving on once again. We're flying. So here we go. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to introduce the next author and I'm gonna get her name spot on. Jill Arbuthnot. I really hope I've said that right. An illustrator, Marianna Madras, who worked together on the last book in our shortlist, which is called Microbe Wars. Let's have a look. Already blown away by the animation and the book itself. What a topic. Guys, welcome. Thank you so much for being here. How are you both? Great. It's fantastic to be here and to think of all the children, pupils, all sorts of people watching. It's wonderful to be back with an audience even though we can't see them. Well, trust me, they are there because the questions are flooding in. So Jill, we'll come to you first because we're talking about microbes here. This is a tough yet interesting topic that I reckon loads of people might pick a book up on and go like, that's too complicated for me. And actually, what's brilliant about this is it's going, no, it's not. You're gonna learn, you're gonna be interested. What did you enjoy most about writing this book? I'm a fantastic fan of microbes and people are always surprised at how interesting they are and how easily you can actually see them yourself. You can see what they're doing around you. If you've got food going off in the kitchen, if you've got mushrooms growing, they are all around us. It's like an invisible second world, universe of its own. Yeah, really are. And then let's come to you, Marianna. You know, what was this experience like because you can even see from the front cover yet there that this book is, it's packed full, isn't it? Like, so much is going on. There's so much for the eye to look at here, isn't there? Yeah, it was jam packed, but it was so enjoyable. Just all of these different stories, different characters, good characters, bad characters, battles. It was just so fun to illustrate it. I really, really enjoyed it and it was a challenge, but I welcomed it. How much did you know about microbes before reading through what Jill had written? I knew a little bit, probably the basics. I think thanks to Jill's book, I know a lot more and I hope everybody else watching knows a lot more about microbes after reading such an amazing book. I am so jealous of you illustrators because you basically get to open this amazing project for anyone else has seen them and you get to go, I have decided how I want this to look and feel as a book. And I think there's an incredible power to that actually, isn't there? You must feel like superwoman. A little bit, it's also a little bit like, it was a little bit nervous at the beginning. It took a little bit of time to come up with ideas, but then once I decided how to design them, it was like, okay, we're on. It was great. Love that. Jill, you must learn so much along the way as well. I bet you're constantly kind of fact-finding and learning and what was the most interesting fact that you came across that you just thought that's going in? Well, it's all the stuff about the microbes that are in you. You're half alien. All of you think you're all made of human cells. Well, you are, but you're made of half microcells as well. And we're becoming more and more aware of just what an incredible important resource they are for our body. They're involved in digestion, the immune system. They might even affect your mental health. And this is something that you guys watching are going to learn much more about. There's an explosion in our knowledge coming on this. There really is. Sorry, we've just got so many questions coming in. So clearly you've tapped into something that people are really excited about. This is from Salisbury. Salisbury, I hope I'm saying that right because there's a you there, primary school. Are the wars between microbes and humans? That's the question. I don't even understand what's coming out my mouth. Yes, both of those things are true. So there are microbes like COVID or flu, which are trying to attack humans and also other animals and plants, we mustn't get plants. But then there are microbes who are at war with other microbes, bacteria and special viruses that try and attack them called bacteriophages. They're the most amazing things of all, I think. I just think you're all brilliant, like all the illustrators, all the authors today, because what you've done is just make a series of books that have just blown everyone's minds, which is great. So look, thank you so much for joining us today and for chatting with us and good luck, guys. Thank you, it's been a pleasure. Right, here we go. I think this is the moment we've all been waiting for. And I don't know about you, but if I sit really quietly, I can just about hear the drum roll in the background. Do you want to start one? If you're in your living room, see classrooms, tiny little drum roll, which means that it's the moment you've all been waiting for. It's time to reveal the winner of the Young People's Book Prize 2022. So let's bring our authors back for this announcement. There they all are sitting anxiously in their front. I've actually gone a bit sweaty as well. So here we go. And now it is my pleasure, if I really know it, it's my pleasure to announce the winner of the Young People's Book Prize 2022. The winning book is If The World Were A Hundred People, written by Jackie McCann and illustrated by Aaron Cushley. Congratulations, guys. How are you feeling, Jackie and Aaron? Let's start with you, Jackie. Wow, wow, that's amazing. I mean, that's just fantastic. Two things, because it's voted for by children. So this is who we write for. The fact that children like this book and they found it interesting is incredible. But also everybody else who's been shortlisted, those books are amazing and they're so different to, they're all so different to each other and they're all incredible. And I think it just goes to show how science is so diverse, you can tackle it from so many different ways. And the important thing is to just stay engaged with science and to keep exploring and keep reading. But thank you. Oh, well done, like massive congratulations. Can we quickly come to you, Aaron? How are you feeling? Did you expect that? No, I mean, I think just from being here today, I was just blown away by being my defense bar and women here because I mean, whenever I came in at the midnight was or the seminar was just kind of amazed at just how many talented women there are in not just the science field, but also the publishing field and just, I just want to say that I am just an awe of everyone here who's just been nominated and just been in the meeting today and just thank you to all the children who had the book is, you know, shopping out of worth and interested. It was a joy to work on and it was a pleasure to work with Jackie. Oh, well done, massive congratulations, both of you. Another little round of applause for our winners, Jackie and Aaron, well done. I hope you're all going crazy in your classrooms as we speak and now just to finish on, bring back your pen and paper. We're going to see how you've done in the book quiz. Authors, I hope you've got your pen and paper as well. So number one was how many species, how many types of microbe are there roughly? And the answer was one trillion. Can you believe that? That really is mind-blowing. The next question, number two was, what is the most common eye color? And the answer is brown. So huge, well done. If you got that, if you looked around the room at everyone's eyes. Number three, once wolves were reintroduced in Yellowstone, which animals saw their numbers increase? It was A, E, C. So it was badgers, rabbits, foxes, which is really exciting and uplifting. So number four was, which of these is not a type of bridge? The answer was Beamer Bridge. That is not a type of bridge. And then number five, which of these cutting edge types of transportation is already a reality? It was my favorite to say, maglev, magnetic levitation trains or a dear thing. And finally, number six, which female scientist has an asteroid and a Mars rover named after her for helping discover the secret of life. It was Rosalind Franklin. So there we go. That is everything for today. What an exciting, I can't believe it's been an hour. This has just been absolutely fantastic. Congratulations again to Jackie and Aaron, as well as the other shortlisted authors and illustrators. You are all a huge inspiration and you've clearly all worked so hard and you're so passionate about what you do, which has just been oozing through the screen this afternoon. So thank you. Yeah, do come back and see us because we wanna say goodbye to you. Thank you so much as well to the generous donors who make this prize possible each year. Thanks to all the shortlisted authors, illustrators and their publishers. We shouldn't forget publishers as well. And to you, our biggest thank you goes to you, our judging panels and our group leaders across the UK for your brilliant work selecting a winner. Thank you. Keep an eye out on the Royal Society website because the applications to become a judging panel for the Young People's Book Prize 2023 are gonna open again in mid-April. And then we'll do all of this again. That is it for us this afternoon. Massive wave, massive love guys and thank you so much once again. Well done to Jackie and Aaron.