Tuesday 25 March 2014

Salford Children's Book Award: Winner of Winners

On Friday 21st March 17 pupils went on a trip to the Lowry Theatre to attend the Salford Children's Book Award: Winner of Winners ceremony. All of the pupils had taken part in either our WOW club or our ROFL club. We wanted to celebrate the dedication and talent these pupils have shown to reading and original writing.

 
The shortlisted books had been chosen over the last 10 years as the winners of the SCBA, this year was the winner of winners!
 
The Shortlist
 
Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo
Breathe by Cliff McNish
The Recruit by Robert Muchamore
Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls
Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng
Magyk by Angie Sage
The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
Sky Hawk by Gill Lewis
Escape by Paul Adam
Shadow by Michael Morpurgo
 
Pupils have been reading these during ROFL club on Wednesday evenings and using them as inspiration during WOW club.
 
The ceremony started at 10am with Alan Gibbons as our regular compare. We listened to pupils from various schools who had prepared presentations about each of the nominated books. My personal favourite was the Molly Moon presentation as the pupils spent a great deal of time trying to hypnotise the audience into voting for their book choice. We then spent a further hour listening to the authors answer questions about how they became authors and what inspired their books. Finally, the winner was announced and it was no surprise that Michael Morpurgo picked up the WOW award.
 
 
In accepting his Award he told a story of a conversation with ex-Poet Laureate Ted Hughes who said:
“When you are a prize winner it’s not good for you; when you don’t win you are sad and that’s not good for you. So, should there be prizes?”
Michael Morpurgo decided it was a good thing to have prizes and said he was delighted with his accolade. He told the audience that Salford was a very special to him. He loved the area and had got to know the city well during the staging of War Horse at the Lowry. He also said that he hoped winning book Shadow might also make the transition to the film and stage following the path of War Horse and Private Peaceful.
“Books are the best, but plays and movies shed new light on the writing.”
(Taken from the Michael Morpurgo website.) 
 
After the ceremony came to a close, the pupils were invited downstairs to meet the authors and get their newly purchased books signed. It was wonderful to see so many pupils from various schools feeling excited about meeting their favourite authors. I hope the day has inspired all to continue to read for pleasure and write their own books in the future.

Thank you to all that came, you behaved beautifully and were a credit to the school

Miss Martyniuk & Miss Haydock.





 


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