Children's Book Wins Whitbread

Philip Pullman has won the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year Award for The Amber Spyglass (Knopf, 2000), marking the first time the coveted U.K. literary prize has gone to a kids' book. He also won the Whitbread Children's Book Award.

The Amber Spyglass beat stiff competition from a children's shortlist and then was automatically in the running for the main prize, selected by a nine-member panel of judges.