Salford to host its 20th Children’s Book Awards

The Salford Children’s Book Awards is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

The award, run by Salford Schools’ Library Service, encourages older children across Salford to read a wide range of books and authors, as well as promoting the enjoyable aspects of reading.

Chris Farey, head of libraries at Salford Community Leisure, said: “We are delighted to be celebrating 20 years of the Salford Children’s Book Award.

“The Salford Schools’ Library Service has worked tirelessly for many years on this event and encouraging pupils in Salford High Schools to love reading, and we are continually looking to inspire and engage Salford’s young people by providing in our libraries the most diverse range of reading materials possible.”

The event remains one of the longest standing book awards in the UK, and has awarded 17 different authors across its run.

In celebration of this special anniversary, an extra book has been added to the line-up and a total of six outstanding books have been shortlisted.

Organiser Emily Stock of Salford School’s Library Service.
Photo received and given permission to use by Salford Community Leisure.

The titles, which were announced via Facebook and Twitter in early January, have been sent to participating Salford schools for pupils to read.

Readers can then vote for their favourite title from the selection, which ultimately decides the winner.

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This year’s shortlist is:

Cardboard Cowboys by Brian Conaghan, Storm Horse by Jane Elson, How I Saved The World in a Week by Polly Ho-Yen, Ghostcloud by Michael Mann, Twitch by M G Leonard, and Nisha’s War by Dan Smith.

At the ceremony, groups of 11-14-year-olds from many schools across Salford will get to meet some of the shortlisted authors, hear them talk about their work and creative writing processes and ask them questions about their literary journeys.

Since the award began, Salford libraries have been able to distribute more than 3,500 books to local schools.

Chris Farey continued: “It is widely understood that reading for pleasure can really enhance learning and well-being, and greatly improve future prospects.

“It’s a very popular event in the calendar and hugely beneficial to pupils and schools from all around the city.”

The Salford library service also provides an extensive event programme, which includes free and low cost family events and other facilities including computers, eBooks and e-Audiobooks.