Congratulations to Wataru Nadatani, Overall Winner of this year’s Excelsior Award for Cat + Gamer (Dark Horse).

The Excelsior Award is the UK’s biggest award for graphic novels and manga for young people. While the shortlists are selected by a panel of librarians, comic creators and booksellers, the winners are chosen by students from schools across the UK and Ireland.

Cat + Gamer tells the story of office worker Riko Kozakura who works hard to get through her tasks so that she can leave on time and get home to play her favourite video games. However, when she finds herself adopting a stray kitten, Riko’s ordered life is  turned upside down. When it comes to cat care, Riko may be a Level 1 but, using lessons learned from her gaming to help her, she is determined to level up and become the best cat owner a gamer can be!

To be declared this year’s Overall Winner, Cat + Gamer had first to be chosen as the winner of the Blue (11+) category from a shortlist of five titles before going on to beat the winners of the three other award categories – White (9+), Red (14+) and Black (16+).

Commenting on this year’s award, founder Paul Register said: ‘Although Cat + Gamer won with a phenomenal score, there wasn’t a book on any of this year’s shortlists that was not popular with students. Thank you to all the schools that took part this year!’

Category Winners

Green Arrow: Stranded by Brendan Deneen and Bell Hosalla (DC Comics) – Excelsior Award White (9+)

Deadpool: Samurai by Sanshiro Kasama and Hikaru Uesugi (Viz Media) – Excelsior Award Red (14+)

Moon Knight: The Midnight Mission by Jed MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccino (Marvel Comics) – Excelsior Award Black (16+)

 

Find out more about the Excelsior Award and how your school can get involved here.  See all the titles shortlisted for this year’s Excelsior Award here.