Prize Winning Books

Posted on 14 October 2010 in Library Blog by Louise Ellis- Barrett

The newly formed Senior School Reading Group are all reading a book from the shortlist for the Teenage Book Prize, the winner of which will be announced in early November so watch this space for news.

The question is will the official winner match the choice of the group?  This remains to be seen and will certainly be interesting.

Book Prizes are now a common event, the man Booker Prize for adult literature has just been announced as has The Guardian Children's Fiction prize - the lucky winner of this was Michelle Paver for Ghost Hunter, the last in her Chronicles of Ancient Darkness.  Now much as i love this series I do feel it is a shame to award a prize to a book which is sixth in a series when there are so many great new and stand alone books waiting to be read - should we not be encouraging children to spread their wings and investigate new books - would prizes being awarded to these not help some of the excellent and perhaps at times neglected new writers find an audience?

Food for thought and comments are of course welcome.  In the meantime if you have not discovered them yet, do read Michelle Paver's books and also investiagte some of the many excellent prizes celebrating the best in children's literature.