Wolverhampton Children's Book Award

The Wolverhampton Children’s Book Award, now in its 4th year, was created by WGS Head Librarian, Zoe Rowley. Each year, children across the region aged between 9 and 13 years read and nominate their favourite books for the award.

Children from local state schools across Wolverhampton are invited to the Award Ceremony with the shortlisted authors and participate in workshops and literacy activities before the Award winner is announced.

Aims

The Award was created to encourage a love of reading amongst children aged 9-13 years.  Hundreds of children across Wolverhampton were encouraged to nominate their own titles for the award and then to read the shortlisted books and vote for their favourite.

Background

The partnership was started by Head Librarian, Zoe Rowley who approached librarians in local schools to share the Award and in turn encourage their pupils to further their love of reading.

This partnership was established in 2019 and is now in its fourth year.

Resources

School facilities are used for the Award Ceremony which is the culmination of the partnership. 

Impact

Feedback is sought from partner schools and participating authors. Feedback shows that these type of events are having an impact in encouraging children to read for pleasure.

Pupil Involvement

The partnership involves hundreds of children from local schools aged 9-13 years.

This year over 120 boys and girls from 5 schools attended the Award Ceremony. Winning author Pam Smy and fellow authors Serena Patel and Chris Smith also contributed by giving talks and interactive workshops with the children.

Frequency

This is run annually and is now a well established event in the local area attracting increasing numbers of schools and participants.