Siobhan Dowd, the Oxford children's writer who died of cancer last year at the age of 47, has won a posthumous award.

Her second novel, The London Eye Mystery - a spine-tingling thriller in which two children search for their cousin who vanished while riding on the London Eye - was named Bisto Book of the Year 2007/08 at a prize-giving in Dublin.

In an emotional ceremony, the trophy and cheque for 10,000 euros were accepted on her behalf by her friend, the Oxford publisher David Fickling.

Her husband, librarian Geoff Morgan, was also at the awards, and the prize money will go to The Siobhan Dowd Trust, which she set up before she died to help disadvantaged children improve their reading skills (www.siobhandowd trust.org).

A few months before her death, she was named one of the "25 Authors of the Future" by Waterstones.

She was born in Ireland and lived in West Oxford, but had spent much of her childhood in Ireland, where her family originated. The CBI Bisto Awards are given annually to authors or illustrators born or resident in Ireland.

Her fourth novel, Solace of the Roa, is due out in 2009.