Only 19 books, a disappointingly low number, were submitted for the children’s book award this year. Why is writing about children with special needs seen as something of a ghetto for publishers? After all, according to government figures, some 20 per cent of the child population is deemed to have special needs of some description. Surely out of the 7,000 children’s books published in the UK last year, a comparable proportion could have special needs children as characters. Even two per cent would have been something of a breakthrough.

However, the winner, Berlie Doherty’s The Golden Bird, really did represent just what we were looking for. This was, to quote the award’s criteria, “a book. . . for children under the age of 16, which does most to put forward a positive image of special needs”. The writer is of course already a prize winner, having twice won the Carnegie Medal, but this book is for a younger audience than her Carnegie winners.

In the highly successful Banana Books series for newly fluent readers, published by Heinemann, it tells of a young boy who becomes mute after his father’s death. Doherty is highly successful in letting the reader fill in the gaps of the hero’s life. In a comparatively short space she manages to convey the boy’s pain as well as the pride of the whole school when he shines in the mimed part of the golden bird in the school play. Glowing with John Lawrence’s dramatic pictures, this book is an object lesson in encompassing human emotions in a miniature canvas.

The judges also commended Lucy’s Picture, written by Nicola Moon and illustrated by Alex Aycliffe (Orchard Books). Although this features an adult with special needs rather than a child (Lucy’s grandfather is blind), we wanted to draw attention to its matter-of-fact but sensitive approach as Lucy makes her picture for him. “It’s the best picture I ever saw”. Her grandfather exclaims at the end of the book.

So what do we hope for next year? More books about children who are living happy and fulfilling lives despite the fact that they are disabled in some way. More books about children which do not mention the fact that the children have special needs but leave the connection to the reader to discover. Publishers say that these books do not sell and presumably with institutional purchases gradually disappearing, this is a consideration. But there are surely some of those 20 per cent who want to see themselves represented in the books they and their mainstream peers read.

Keith Barker is the librarian at Westhill College, Selly Oak, Birmingham The other members of the panel were Wendy Cooling, children’s book consultant, Desmond Spiers of the National Library for the Handicapped Child and Dorothy Smith, advisory teacher.