All your votes are in!

Voting for the book award has now ended! The votes are being counted as we speak, ready to announce your winners at a huge celebratory ceremony at the City Hall on 27 November!

If you have recently read a great book you think should be on next years shortlist, let us know about it! The book will need to be a fiction book, published in the UK for the first time during 2012 and suitable for children or young people. Tell us the author, title and why you like it.

Authors attending the Sheffield Children's Book Award ceremony

Nicola Bayley  - The Big Snuggle Up (Illustrator)

Peter Bently  & Mei Matsuoka - The Great Sheep Shenanigans

Alexis Deacon - A Place to Call Home

 

Jeremy Strong - Cartoon Kid

Janet Foxley - Muncle Trog

Kjartan Poskitt - Agatha Parrot 

 

Martyn Bedford - Flip

Jim Carrington - In the Bag

Anne Cassidy - Heart Burn

Liz Kessler - A Year Without Autumn

Chris Priestly - Mister Creecher

 Eric Brown - A Monster Ate my Marmite

Joe Layburn - Street Heroes : Run Aways

Tom Palmer - Scrum

Bali Rai - The Gun

 Anthony McGowan - The Fall

Watch out for more names to be added over then next few weeks.

Book Award Ceremony Date Announced

Results for the Sheffield Children's Book Award are starting to arrive in the office but the results will be kept a closely guarded secret until the Award Ceremony. 

This years event will be held on 27th November at the Sheffield City Hall. Many of the Short-list authors, illustrators ans publishers will be at the ceremony to meet hundreds of the children who have enjoyed the books and voted for them.
More information to follow soon......

Applications now Closed for Summer Reading Challenge Volunteers 2012

Thank you to everyone who has applied to be a Summer Reading Challenge volunteer; we have had a great response! The deadline for applications has now been reached, so all of you who have applied for the opportunity can expect to be hearing from us very soon!  We hope to have more opportunities springing up over the coming year so keep checking the blog and the council website!

New Volunteer Opportunities!

For the third year running we are offering young people across Sheffield the opportunity to gain valuable work experience, and the chance to gain a nationally-recognised accreditation, through our highly successful Summer Reading Challenge Volunteer Project.

We're looking for enthusiastic young people, aged between 14 and 16, with a love of reading, to work in Central Children's, Walkley, Manor, and Gleadless Libraries, promoting the Summer Reading Challenge to young children. 

Many of you will perhaps remember taking part in The Summer Reading Challenge when you were younger; it's a massive, national project which aims to keep young children reading over the summer holidays and we need your help to get as many kids as possible involved! This year's theme is StoryLab, and the children who sign up for the project will be set the challenge of reading six books over the holidays, receiving rewards along the way.

We are looking for volunteers to help sign kids up for the Challenge, hand out rewards, and encourage kids a long the way - talking to them about the books they've read and helping them to choose more titles - there will also be opportunities to get involved in organising and running craft activities.

All our volunteers will gain a certificate from the Reading Agency, and a reference from the Sheffield Library Service, which can be used in their Record of Achievement. For the most promising applicants there will also be the opportunity to gain an OCN Level 2 accreditation, through the Reading Matters scheme.

If you think you might be interested, just click here to be taken to more information about the volunteer project, including a link to the application form. We need to have your applications in by Friday 8th June, so there's no time to lose! We look forward to hearing form you!

2012 Shortlists Fully Uploaded!

Information on all 18 books chosen for our 2012 shortlists have now been uploaded to the blog, along with details of the six books chosen for this year's special category, 'Quick Reads'. So all you need to do to check out which titles have made the cut, earning themselves a place on this year's Sheffield Children's Book Award shortlists, is to click on the tabs at the top of the page.  

Within the descriptions of the shortlisted books there are also links to authors' and illustrators' websites, so you can find out more about the people behind your favourite titles. Keep your eyes peeled for even more links on our 'Resources' page, which will be coming soon!

If you are taking part in the Book Award through your local library, rather than your school, then you can vote for your favourite book using the link at the bottom of your category page (see the 'Welcome' page for more details). If you'd like to recommend a book for next year's shortlists then you can do so by clicking the link on the top right of the home page and following the instructions.

Over the next few weeks we will also be uploading more titles to our archive pages; so if you are looking for your next good read, you will be able to get all the inspiration you need by checking out the previous winning titles on our blog.

2012 Shortlist Revealed!

The Sheffield library service – along with young readers, parents and teaching staff across the city – have been busy over the past year, reading as many books as possible, in order to make sure this year’s shortlist represents the very best in current children’s literature.

In January we finally whittled down all the hundreds of books competing for a place on the shortlist to the final thirty; with six titles for the Baby Book Award, Picture Book category,Young Adult category, and this year’s Special Category: Quick Reads. There are another three books each in the Shorter Novel and Longer Novel categories; two collections aimed at our junior school readers.

We're confident that we have chosen the very best books on offer, and hope you’ll have a great time reading them and voting for your favourite!

…And now here are all the shortlisted titles…

Baby Book Award

• The Acorn, by Edward Gibbs
• Fluff and Billy do Everything Together by Nicola Killen
• Lulu's Lunch by Camilla Reid and Ailie Busby
• In the Bath by Leslie Patricelli
• My First Words by Roger Priddy
• Little Frog by Katie Saunders

Picture Books

• Anna Hibiscus' Song by Atinuke and Lauren Tobia
• The Great Shepp Shenanigans by Peter Bently and Mei Matsuoka
• A Place to Call Hame by Alexis Deacon and Viviane Schwarz
• The Pirates Next Door by Jonny Duddle
• The Big Snuggle Up by Brian Patten and Nicola Bayley
• Dear Fairy Godmother by Michael Rosen and Nick Sharratt

Shorter Novels

• Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones
• Agatha Parrot by Poskitt Kjartan
• Cartoon Kid by Jeremy Strong

Longer Novels

• Muncle Trogg by Janet Foxley
• The Snow Merchant by Sam Gayton
• One Dog and his Boy by Eva Ibbotson

Young Adult

• Flip by Martyn Bedford
• In the Bag by Jim Carrigton
• Heart Burn by Anne Cassidy
• A Year without Autumn by Liz Kessler
• Mister Creecher by Chris Priestley
• Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

Quick Reads

• A Monster Ate My Marmite by Eric Brown
• Bomb by Jim Eldridge
• Street Heores: Run Aways by Joe Layburn
• The Fall by Anthony McGowan
• Scrum by Tom Palmer
• The Gun by Bali Rai

More information about this year's titles will be added to this blog shortly, along with links to resources to get the most out of this year's shortlists - so keep your eyes peeled! We would love for you to get involved and leave your comments on the blog - what you enjoyed (or didn't!) about the titles you'll be reading over the coming months. Good luck with the shortlist and happy reading!!!