A WRITER whose manuscripts were rejected by publishers for ten years won the most prestigious prize in children’s literature yesterday.

Jennifer Donnelly was awarded the Carnegie Medal for her first teenage novel, A Gathering Light.

She triumphed over Mark Haddon, who became the favourite after his book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, won a number of prizes, including the Whitbread Award.

For a decade Donnelly was a struggling would-be author, taking various jobs by day and writing by night.

The Irish-American was rejected by nearly every publishing house in New York but last year, at the age of 39, her first novel made it into print.

A Gathering Light is her third book, her first for teenagers, but has become a crossover hit with children and adults. It received a sales boost when it was selected as a “summer read” by Richard Madeley and Judy Finnegan on their Channel 4 show.

The coming-of-age novel is based on a real-life murder case which gripped America at the beginning of the last century. The body of a young woman, Grace Brown, was pulled from a lake in upstate New York in 1906 and her boyfriend stood trial for her murder. The news shocked America and inspired the 1951 film A Place in the Sun, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift.

Donnelly’s fictional heroine is Mattie, a 16-year-old girl working in a hotel by the lake whose story is interwoven with the murder victim.

The New York-born writer, whose family come originally from Co Meath and Dublin, studied at Birkbeck College in London. Her first book, Tea Rose, is set in the East End.

The Carnegie, now in its 68th year, is voted for by children’s librarians and awarded to “an outstanding book for children and young people”.

The other contenders were: The Fire-Eaters, by David Almond; The Garbage King, by Elizabeth Laird; Private Peaceful, by Michael Morpurgo; Sisterland, by Linda Newbery; and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon.

Ms Donnelly said: “Winning the Carnegie Medal means a great deal to me. It is an incredible honour because it comes from people in the trenches, people who fight the good fight every day.

“The librarian judges understand their young readers and know what they want.

“They understand the deep need children and teenagers have to see themselves - their experiences, their hopes and dreams — in the books they read.

“I couldn’t give up, even though all the signs pointed to the contrary. Stubbornness is a valuable quality in a writer. There was nothing else I felt I wanted to do.”

Shirley Hughes, a graphic artist beloved by a generation of adults for her 1977 book Dogger, was awarded the Kate Greenaway Medal for children’s book illustration for Ella’s Big Chance, a retelling of the Cinderella story, which she also wrote. Her book transports the fairytale to the 1920s and updates the ending.

Ella slaves over a sewing machine in her father’s dress shop while her ugly stepsisters parade the latest fashions.

Hughes’s illustrations feature dresses inspired by the famous French couturiers of the 1920s.

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