Harrogate bookshop, Imagined Things is one of three winners of a nationwide competition to find the independent book trade’s biggest champions of A.F. Steadman’s bestselling Skandar series, each winning a £1000 cash prize.
Simon & Schuster Children’s Books launched the Chaos Cup competition, to find winners in three categories; the most innovative Skandar social post, the bookshop selling the most copies of the National Year of Reading editions of the Skandar series and the best in-store Skandar display. The promotion ran throughout June to coincide with Independent Bookshop Week and the winners were recently revealed.
The most innovative social post was awarded to The Cotswold Book Room in Wotton-under-Edge for a reel that has been seen over 2700 times, Wonderland Bookshop in Retford triumphed in the sales category and Imagined Things Bookshop in Harrogate scooped the best Skandar Year of Reading in-store display.
Georgia Eckert from Imagined Things Bookshop said:
We are thrilled and delighted, and a tiny bit shocked to have won! We hugely champion Skandar in the shop, and have done from the start so it’s such an honour to win a Skandar competition!
The fact that it’s a monetary prize too is incredible – so very generous of Simon & Schuster, and so much more useful than a fixed prize.
The possibilities seem endless, but we plan to use it to transform our children’s section, and get some new shelving to have more space to display children’s books and allow us to have more on offer and on display for our young readers.
Leanne Nulty, Senior Key Account Manager at Simon & Schuster, who led the initiative said:
We have been delighted with the response and engagement for the Bookshop Chaos Cup Competition and the celebrations for the Skandar National Year of Reading editions as part of Independent Bookshop Week.
Readers and booksellers have always loved how immersive this series is, and how community forms around A. F. Steadman’s incredible world. This was exactly what we wanted to capture, as well as offering bookshops the opportunity to secure funding that will make a real difference in their own shops and local communities.
Congratulations to the three winning shops. We are so grateful to them for their continued support, and they, along with the entire independent bookselling sector, have long been champions of the Skandar series and its capacity to truly turn reading into an adventure.
A.F. Steadman said:
I owe so much to all the fantastic independent bookshops across the country who have supported Skandar and share in their pure joy that children have come back time and again for each book in the series.And I am incredibly grateful especially to The Cotswold Book Room, Wonderland Bookshop and Imagined Things for all the creativity and effort that led to them winning this competition. Seeing how booksellers find that unique way to ignite the spark of reading in their young customers is such a privilege – and one of my favourite things about being an author.
