An unexpected post.  I’m very happy to have learnt today that the book Eye Benders has won the 2014 Royal Society Young Person’s Book Prize.  Eye Benders was written by Clive Gifford (main author) and me (consultant).  It was published by Ivy Press, who are also the redoubtable publishers of the so-far-prizeless but nonetheless worthy 30 Second Brain. A follow-up to Eye Benders, Brain Twister, is in the works: More brain, less optical illusions, but same high quality young-person-neuroscience-fare.

The Royal Society says this about the prize: “Each year the Royal Society awards a prize to the best book that communicates science to young people. The prize aims to inspire young people to read about science and promotes the best science writing for the under-14s.”

This year, the shortlist was chosen by Professor James Hough FRS, Dr Rhaana Starling, Mr Michael Heyes, Professor Iain Stewart and Dr Anjana Ahuja. Well done all, good shortlisting.  More importantly, the winner was chosen by groups of young persons themselves.  Here is what some of the 2014 young people had to say about Eye Benders:

Matt, 12 said “Science from a different perspective. Factual and interesting – a spiral of a read!”

Beth, 14 said “It was way, way cool!

Ethan, 12 said “The illustrations were absolutely amazing”

Joe, 12 said “A great, well written and well thought-out book; the illustrations are clear, detailed and amazing. The front cover is beautiful.”

Felix, 10 said “Eye popping and mind-blowingly fun!’

So there it is. Matt and friends have spoken, and here is a picture of Clive accepting the award in Newcastle (alas I wasn’t there) accompanied with a young person being enthused:

Here’s a sneak at what the book looks like, on the inside:

A personal note: I remember well going through the final layouts for Eye Benders, heavily dosed on painkillers in hospital in Barcelona following emergency surgery, while at the same time my father was entering his final weeks back in Oxfordshire. A dark time.  Its lovely, if bittersweet, to see something like this emerge from it.

Other coverage:

GrrlScientist in The Guardian.
Optical illusion book wins Royal Society prize
Clive shares some of the best Eye Benders illusions online
Royal Society official announcement
University of Sussex press release