Sunday 29 May 2011

LANCASHIRE BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD 2011 by Adèle Geras

This year, Keren David's WHEN I WAS JOE swept all before it. All the Year 9s who made up the judging panel loved it and the two next most popular books were BLACKOUT by Sam Mills and WHISPER MY NAME by Jane Eagland.

The judging process, as ever, brought out the best in the panel of pupils. They argued fiercely for their favourites and were intelligent and articulate and fun throughout. The whole thing ran like clockwork.

The work is done now and we now await the festivities on the 24/25th June when lots of the shortlisted writers come up to Preston for a dinner hosted by University of Central Lancashire (the prize's sponsors) followed the next day by the presentation of the award itself. That's always a lovely occasion. I'm really looking forward to meeting Keren, and the other writers who'll be attending.

Thanks very much to Jake Hope and Jean Wolstenholme and their cohort of excellent children's librarians, and also to UCLAN and the supporting publishers who send the books. Lancashire County Council lets us use their splendid meeting rooms so they deserve a hearty cheer as well.

8 comments:

Ynysawdre Elderly Residents Association said...

That soundds fab - what a great thing to do with Year ('s I wonder how I could implement something along those lines for the school library?
Now you have me thinking :D
What criteria did you set out for the books :D

Miriam Halahmy said...

Fantastic - it must have bee a great event. Well done to Keren for winning and to Sam and Jane for coming up so close. Everyone should be very proud of themselves. Great post Adele.

Death Dance said...

I wish I could read that book now. I could get my hands on it when it is already being sold in our country

Keren David said...

Thrilled to have won against such strong competition - looking forward to June 24/25 very much.

Cathy Butler said...

Well done, Keren - terrific news!

adele said...

The criterion for books is: they must be suitable for children of age 14 or so and publishers have to send in copies to the organisers. That's it. Any book is eligible that falls into that category. Then they get sent to the schools and the children who read them draw up their own shortlists and these are all collated in a way that is a mystery to me and we get a shortlist of ten books which the judging panel (22 kids from 11 schools) have to read and then THEY choose the winner. I just help them by chairing their discussion and of course I have to have read all the books myself. I've done it for 4 years and it's the most enormous fun.

Anonymous said...

Oh, well done, Keren!
Adele - you two willl love eahc other - you're two of my favourite authors, so it's a done deal!
Doreen Samuels

Linda Strachan said...

Well done, Keren, a well deserved win!
Congrats to Sam and Jane, too.