Two Cities Book Award

Following the success of the Wolverhampton Children’s Book Award, now in its 4th year and created by Senior Librarian, Zoe Rowley, Wolverhampton Grammar School have created a similar award for young adults aged 13-18.The Two Cities Book Award was launched in November 2022 and involved children from schools across Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley.

The inaugural award ceremony on 7th December, brought together 150 students from a dozen schools. All four authors took part, either in person or virtually, and shared their works and words of inspiration with the children. Also inspiring the audience were WGS Sixth Form student, Jaipal Uppal, winner of the 2022 BBC Young Reporter and King Edward VI High School for Girls student, Fatma Mohiuddin, 2020-2022 Birmingham Young Poet Laureate, speaking on the subject ‘The Power of Words’.

Aims

The partnership was created to expand the existing reach of the Wolverhampton Children's Book Award to teenagers and to cover a wider geographical area by partnering with a school in Birmingham.

A need was identified to ensure that young adults are reading for pleasure and discovering new modern fiction. Many schools in particular were struggling to get their Sixth Formers to read for pleasure.

The titles chosen specifically included topics such as the impact of war, the power of friendship, Quantum Physics and self-acceptance. Each book left students feeling inspired and empowered.

Background

The partnership came about through The Warwick Group network of local schools in which librarians from the group meet to share best practice. The idea was proposed by Wolverhampton Grammar School and King Edward's School agreed to partner and host the first event. It is intended that the partnership is repeatedly annually and will include other ISC partner schools as well as new local state schools.

Resources

The project required coordination by the School librarians who worked together with Authors Aloud UK to bring the authors and schools to the award ceremony.

Impact

As a result of this partnership activity a Sixth Form Reading Group has been established in WGS, Codsall High School and Beacon Hill Academy. These reading groups continue to collaborate and inspire young people to read for pleasure.