PageTurners Book Awards
Kent College hosts the PageTurners themed book awards for the tenth year running.
160 avid readers from 13 local schools celebrated the shortlisted books on the theme of 'Friendship'. Author Sarah Crossan gave an enthusiastic, dramatic, and very funny talk about her book, writing verse novels, and rapping. Polly Ho-Yen gave a virtual talk which encouraged the audience to use their 'brain compost' to write creatively and her book 'Boy in the Tower' was the overall winner.
The awards featured a fancy dress competition, home-made book trailers, and wonderful creative responses to the books.
Aims
PageTurners is an annual, themed, book award for teenagers and young adults in the South East of England. Each year a different theme for the awards is chosen before picking 10 shortlisted books. Through peer recommendation, PageTurners aims to encourage young people to read books which they might not otherwise pick.
The reading cycle starts in September and culminates in an awards gala evening, with guest authors, in March each year, hosted at Kent College, Pembury where the winning books are revealed live.
Background
Over fifteen secondary schools participate. Librarians from the schools organise book groups to read books on the selected theme. Two shortlists are complied, one for teenage readers and one for Young Adults.
Resources
The award celebration evening is held at Kent College, Pembury. The school plans and organises the event and liaises with Librarians from the participating schools.
The Countess of Wessex Theatre hosts up to 200 pupils from the local schools. Two guest authors speak about their books and they also take questions.
Refreshments are provided in the Dining Hall where pupils are also able to buy the books and view creative work associated with the event.
Impact
Current feedback to date has been from the Librarians at participating schools.
"I just wanted to get in touch to say a special Thank You to you for last night - I thought it was a really brilliant evening. It all went so smoothly and all the students that I brought along with me had an absolutely fantastic time. It was so lovely to see so many students being joyful about books - I think Sarah Crossan could convert even the most reluctant of readers! I have just had Book Club in the library ... There was so much enthusiasm from everyone who came along last night - I'm sure I'll be bringing more students next year." Mascalls
"Well done everyone, particularly Ruth & Susan! I am delighted to hear that it all turned out so well despite the trials and tribulations along the way. Absolutely gutted to have missed all the fun but one of our teachers was sending me regular updates throughout the evening so I felt part of it all. Sounds as if our students had a whale of a time and the teachers both said it was fantastic and wanted to pass on their thanks to all concerned." Weald of Kent
"A huge thank you from me and my students who enjoyed our first Gala evening tremendously. What a night! Thank you to everyone involved for the huge amount of work that went into organising the event and its smooth running. It is very much appreciated. I hope you are all basking in your success, if not the sunshine today!" Radnor House
"It really was such a fantastic night, thank you so much everyone for all your hard work! I was so busy enjoying myself and worrying about not losing any students, I completely forgot to take any photos!" Weald of Kent
"Massive thanks to you and Susan and Sophie who shouldered so much of the work that went into such a brilliant evening. It was fantastic to be back in person and Sarah and Polly were both great. Sarah delivered one of the best author presentations I think I have seen (and I ran a kids book festival for a couple of years). I have had a troop of boys through the library this morning coming to say thank you." Skinners' School
"Well done on a wonderful evening. I know my little group enjoyed the night, as did the teacher who took them. They were buzzing and hopefully we can build on this and bring more next year!" Bethany
Yes, thank you all from all of us here at Bennett. Sarah’s absolutely brilliant – the students were really buzzing afterwards." Bennett
"Many thanks from us too. I was sad to not be there, but Sarah sent me some photos late last night and I could see our boys thoroughly enjoying it!" TWGSB
Pupil Involvement
Pupils across all schools read the shortlisted books, take part in the creative responses and many arrive in fancy dress which is judges at the awards event. The majority of pupils attending the event are from Academy and state maintained secondary schools and are in Years 7-10.
Frequency
This is an annual event with the awards hosted at the end of March.