Photo by Joanne Dugan

  Newbery-winning author Rebecca Stead’s Liar & Spy (Random, 2012) has won this year’s Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a literary award that annually recognizes one children’s fiction book written for children or young adults that is published in the United Kingdom. Stead is the first American author to earn this distinction, only recently available to US writers since 2012. Liar & Spy received a starred review in School Library Journal’s September 2012 issue, and was named an SLJ 2012 Best Book. Below is the Best Book annotation: The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, established by The Guardian newspaper in 1965, also includes £1,500 prize for the winning author. The panel of judges that selected Stead’s middle grade novel was chaired by Julia Eccleshare, Guardian children's books editor. The other judges included past winners Andy Mulligan, Jason Wallace, and Hilary McKay. They also received 200-word reviews of all eight of the longlisted titles from kid critics all over the UK. The other titles on the 2013 Guardian children's fiction long list are: The Boy Who Swam with Piranhas by David Almond Candlewick, 2012 After Tomorrow by Gillian Cross Oxford University Press, 2013 (UK only) Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner Candlewick, 2013 The Fault in Our Stars by John Green Dutton, 2012 Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell S & S, 2013 The Wall by William Sutcliffe Walker, 2013 A World Between Us by Lydia Syson Hot Key Books, 2012 (only UK)