A CHILDREN’S bookshop which has made the most of double-digit sales growth has been celebrated with a national award.

The Book Nook in Hove was crowned Children’s Bookseller of the Year throughout the UK, sponsored by Macmillan. Last year was a vintage one for children’s books, with near double-digit sales growth in the total consumer market and so inevitably competition for the award was fierce.

The Book Nook was up against Waterstones, Foyles, Storytellers, Inc, The Edinburgh Bookshop and Troubadour Travelling Books.

But the independent shop scooped the award in recognition of its breadth of activity and scale of ambition that belies its size.

It averaged more than two author events a week, many of them in schools, where it also arranged fairs and organised class trips to the shop.

The shop also promotes literacy, leading on a council reading scheme across Brighton and Hove, and is a passionate supporter of diversity in children’s books.

Judges said: “The range of what it does is incredible and the team seem to be consistently reimagining what children’s bookselling can be.

“They make a tremendous effort to get out and bring book-buyers into their shop.”