A magical book which encourages children to imagine what their own dragon would look like has been voted as one of their favourite reads.

Author and illustrator Jackie Morris, from Pembrokeshire, was handed a Norfolk Children's Book Award on Tuesday in front of schoolchildren at Attleborough Library for her book Tell Me A Dragon.

Between October and December, more than 6,000 youngsters across the county were asked by Norfolk County Council's library service to vote for their favourite book published in the last year from a shortlist of six which had also been previously picked by children.

Tell Me A Dragon was triumphant in the category for younger children, aged five to seven, while Rabbit Problem by Emily Gravett was crowned the winner in the category for older children, aged seven to 11, at a celebratory event held at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library last week.

Tuesday's event was attended by about 55 children from schools including Great Ellingham Primary, Rocklands Primary, Attleborough Infants, Banham Community Primary and Eccles, Hargham and Wilby Primary who made presentations on each of the six short-listed books.

Jackie, as well as fellow nominated author Kazuno Kohara, were available to read and answer questions from the young audience before the overall winner was announced.

She said: 'I almost cried. It's just the best because the children did it. So many awards are chosen by grown-ups and not by children. I sit at home all day writing and painting and getting out to see my audience that I'm working for and getting such positive feedback from them is so great - I just want to hug them all.'

James Carswell, cabinet member for cultural services at Norfolk County Council, said: 'Inspiring children about books and instilling in them a love of reading is so important. It can have a huge impact on children's confidence, their imagination and creativity, their ability to learn and understand about the world around them, and their education and future lives.'