Order of the Phoenix Not to make SAC's awards
IT MAY have been the world's fastest-selling book and have done more to spread the English language among the world's children than anything else written this or last century. But in the Scottish Arts Council's list of last year's best children's books, JK Rowling's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix doesn't make an appearance.
Even though it has broken every kind of publishing record since it was released last June, the novel hasn't made the shortlist in the SAC's Children's Book of the Year awards, which are announced today.
The Order of the Phoenix was submitted for consideration for the award but was not one of the 15 books to make the judges' longlist. Although the four judges were allowed to call in books that were not on the list for the children's award, none of them did so.

J.K. Rowling has been the receipiant of two of these awards in the past, for both Goblet of Fire and Chamber of Secrets.
Although she gave back the £1,000 she won in the 2001 awards, and although she did not attend the awards ceremony, Rowling said at the time that "an award that is so particularly Scottish means a lot to me".