Reading for pleasure and creative writing is alive and well in our Redbridge schools. On Thursday 26 June 2014, over 180 young readers and budding writers celebrated this year’s Redbridge Children’s Book Awards in a vibrant, exciting ceremony at Redbridge Town Hall.
Students from 17 secondary schools and 10 primary schools across Redbridge and Newham voted for their favourite children’s and teenage book published in 2013.
Sharon Gosling’s debut novel, The Diamond Thief, won the Children’s category and Carnegie medal winner, Kevin Brooks won the teenage category with his novel, The Bunker Diary.
We were delighted to have three of the shortlisted authors, Kevin Brooks, Sharon Gosling and Ali Sparkes, attend. They read extracts from their books, answered in-depth questions from eager students and signed copies of their books. In his acceptance speech, Kevin spoke about how much this award meant to him because he was voted the winner by young readers themselves.
Winners of the writing and poetry competitions were also presented with their prizes by Councillor Joyce Ryan. The poetry competition was judged by David Fulton, lecturer in Creative Writing at Brunel University and the short story competition was judged by author and Head of Bancrofts Prep School, Joe Layburn
Niamh Connole from Trinity Catholic High School won the age twelve and under poetry competition with her poem, We Could Have Been Friends. Finn Halligan from Trinity High School won the age thirteen and over category with the poem Parvulorum Veritas.
Daisy Nichols from Wanstead Church Primary won the age twelve and under short story competition with her story, Ozeozborn the Wizard: Life without Ketchup. Jessica Phillips from Wanstead High School won the age thirteen and over category with her story, Maiden Voyage . Winners were presented with a book token, a fiction book and a copy of this year’s anthology of all shortlisted poems and stories. The winners read their poems and a snippet of their stories to the audience.
The book award is organised by Redbridge Schools’ Library Service and sponsored by MLS (Micro Librarian Systems).
Visit our website for more information on Children’s Book Awards, you can also download some of the finest writing from our Redbridge students from this page too!
Post Author: Nina Simone
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