Wimpy Kid series author and illustrator Jeff Kinney was crowned “Author of the Year” at the Children’s Choice Book Awards gala in New York City. This marked the second year in a row that a middle grade author has emerged victorious in this category.

Follow this link to check out videos from last night’s gala. We’ve posted the full list of winners below.

Kids cast their votes for the awards, breaking last year’s record with more than 900,000 submissions. The Children’s Book Council hosted the event to celebrate the 93rd anniversary of Children’s Book Week.

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Forget Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich! Children’s author Nick Bruel has cast the “purrfect” candidate in his latest chapter book: Bad Kitty for President. We’ve embedded the book trailer above.

We caught up with Bruel to ask a few questions about politics, writing and illustrating.

Q: With your latest title, Bad Kitty for President, why did you decide to touch on such a
topical event?
A: I find politics in general to be a very weird, absurd, and sort of wonderful creature in this country. As Americans I think we have a propensity to take politics too seriously (myself included), but at the same time I don’t think many Americans understand our political system as much as they should. It’s a bit like watching a full season of baseball but never really understanding the rules of the game.

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