Runt by Craig Silvey - The US edition

Begin with my post about Runt by Craig Silvey illustrated by Sara Acton and published in Australia in 2022. 

This is just a quick post to show you the US edition of our CBCA Younger Readers Book of the Year (2023) Runt is now called:

The Underdogs of Upson Downs

I asked Craig Silvey on social media about the name change. This happens a lot with our Australian books when they are taken up in the US market and often the new title is very literal like this one, but Craig Silvey said this happened because another book is also called Runt.

Here are US review extracts. It is clear no one told these reviewers Runt won our big award here in 2023. It is brilliant to see a Kirkus Star review:

Annie and Runt are the main attractions, and their relationships with the other scrappy Shearer family members—especially Annie’s aspiring botanist dad—are authentically drawn and lovingly flawed, making them easy to cheer on and adding depth to a beautiful, rewarding narrative that’s a fresh addition to the genre. Kirkus Star review

A heartwarming and hilarious story about a girl and her dog, and of kindness, friendship, hurdles, tunnels, see-saws, and—most importantly—bringing out the best in yourself and others. A book and a hug

The book shares a heart-warming, underdog story that will appeal to readers of all ages. The author can’t go wrong by featuring a cute dog and the two antagonists are easy to root against. I recommend you give this book a shot! YA Books Central

Thank goodness the audio book (here is a sample) is narrated by an Australian!

So far, I have not been able to discover the illustrators name for this US edition and of course I don't know if there is art inside the book. I do like the US cover and I think it will appeal to middle grade readers. Hopefully the US publisher did not change any of the actual text. 

Blog post update - Craig Silvey has shared the name of the cover artist (there is no extra art inside the book). His name is Erwin Madrid. He is originally from the Philippines and now lives in California and works for Dreamworks. Erwin Madrid has worked as a visual development artist for the Shrek franchise as well as creating conceptual art for video games. He is also the illustrator of The Scary Places Map Book by B. G. Hennessy. Here is some of his work:

I also love our version with art by Sara Acton and in fact I own the image at the bottom of this post which I purchased from our IBBY Australia mini masterpiece art auction.