This week, the Talbot Heath Book Group made its way to Shaftesbury School for the finale of the Wessex Amazing Book Award. The Book Group has chosen and advocated for their elected book, The Reappearance of Rachel Price by Holly Jackson, to be awarded ‘Most Amazing Book’ among those chosen by eight other schools in the area. After getting through the longlist, this book had been shortlisted to the final round.
On arrival it was discovered that The Reappearance of Rachel Price had rather a large crowd of fans, which seemed promising. Each book shortlisted had its own table, with students choosing to sit there in order to argue for that book to be the winner. While most of the TH girls still preferred the book they originally chose, several of them now had other favourites after reading the wide variety of shortlisted texts, and chose to sit at other tables.
Once seated, students from different schools worked together to come up with a presentation covering their chosen book. It was wonderful to see students who had never met before working so well together – there were many animated conversations happening all over the room. The presentations themselves were simply excellent with several of the TH students choosing to stand up and persuade others to vote for their choice. Some very good points were made for each book and it must have been very difficult to make a final choice when the students voted.
Next in the schedule was a healthy dose of cake, followed by an entertaining talk by renowned crime writer Gillian Cross, who announced the winning title: Getting Away with Murder by Kathryn Foxfield, nominated by the The Thomas Hardye School. Still, the Book Group’s WABA choice came second place, and staff and students have a trip to Dorchester to look forward to next year…
Grateful thanks to Ms Smith and Mrs Wakeling for running the weekly book group in school and for organising and accompanying the visit. Well done to all of the girls who participated and continue to champion reading!
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Established in 2011 by four West Sussex School Librarians the Amazing Book Awards, aka The ABAs, were created to give local students a strong personal voice. The first essential rule of the awards was, only the students’ votes count. No panel could override or veto their decisions. Student voice is key.
