Nominating the Berkshire Book Award

Fryer Book Club were yesterday eager to join five schools from across Berkshire at Denefield School, to nominate their six favourite shortlisted novels for this year’s Children’s Book Award.

Before getting stuck into the judging, students were first treated to ‘Jelly’. Debut author Clare Rees spoke about the process of getting her first book published and delved into its plot, which explores a post-apocalyptic world where a group of teenagers are trapped on a giant jellyfish.

Thrilled to afterwards receive his signed copy of ‘Jelly’, Year 7 student Dominic spoke of how Clare’s talk inspired him, “It was great to hear from an author about how she got into writing.” Anna in Year 8 continued, “It was fun listening to and interacting with an author.”

As voted for by students, on top were a diverse range of stories, from comedy and calamity, to impractical romance and thrilling action; the six nominated titles were, Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott, The Meltdown by Jeff Kinney, Snowglobe by Amy Wilson, The Dog Who Saved the World by Ross Welford, The Day I Was Erased by Lisa Thompson and Secret Weapon by Anthony Horowitz.

Grace Ritchie, Library Assistant commented “The award is one of a kind in Berkshire, as it enables young people to nominate titles and select their winner. At Leighton Park we encourage students to develop their love of reading for pleasure, and this award introduces them to books and authors they may not normally choose.”

​The Berkshire Book Award champion the belief that a love of reading supports and even boosts, educational success, “Supporting young people to take part in the Award is one way in which school and public libraries can encourage young people to read more, improving their educational opportunities and encouraging social responsibility by giving them a major say in running the Award.”

Indy in Year 7 reflected that the event “was a great experience and I got to find out about a wide variety of books.”

Fryer Book Club (comprised of Year 7 and 8 students), are now casting their final votes, in time for the winner to be announced on Wednesday 25^th March.