South Gloucestershire Council

Published: 11/03/2015

Dystopian novel ‘After Tomorrow’ has been chosen as the 2015 winner of South Gloucestershire’s young people’s literature prize the Concorde Book Award.

Author Gillian Cross was presented with the coveted award at a gala event at the Bristol & Bath Science Park in Emersons Green on Tuesday evening (10 March).

Once again this year’s winner was chosen after an exciting district-wide reading challenge in which hundreds students from South Gloucestershire libraries and schools voted for their favourite from a shortlist of six fiction titles for young adults.

Receiving her award, Gillian said: “This was an exciting evening and a wonderfully well organised event. I’m thrilled to win!”

Taking part in the event, 13-year-old Kirsten McCadden, who attends Marlwood School, said: “This evening has been great! I got a chance to meet loads of new people all interested in books. The night also inspired me to read a few more of Ali Sparkes’ books as well.”

The Hanham Library Bookwurms were also presented with the award for the best contribution to the Concorde Blog by author Ali Sparkes.

11-year-old Edward Fox-Gliddon, a member of Hanham Library Bookwurms said: “Winning the Blogging Award was one of the best experience of my life; words cannot describe it!”

Chairman of South Gloucestershire Council Cllr Howard Gawler said: “This year’s event is part of the South Gloucestershire Time 4 Reading campaign which aims to highlight the power of reading to everyone. Reading is something which everybody learns from a very early age and enjoys throughout their lives; it is a lifelong source of inspiration, creativity and enjoyment. The young people who have taken part in this award will have been challenged, inspired and entertained – all through reading books.”

The Concorde Book Award is an annual award for young people aged 11-13, which aims to encourage them to read and raises the profile of children and young people’s reading.

The Award is unique in being one of the few literary awards chosen by young people rather than adults.

It is organised by the library service and secondary schools in South Gloucestershire and is supported by the Bristol Post.

Shortlisted books are made available from South Gloucestershire public and school libraries, and voting takes place on World Book Day in March each year.

This year’s shortlisted titles were ‘Half My Facebook Friends are Ferrets’ by J A Buckle, ‘After Tomorrow’ by Gillian Cross, ‘Roof Toppers’ by Katherine Rundell, ‘Every Day’ by David Livithan, ‘Mutant City’ by Steve Feasey, and ‘Counting by 7s’ by Holly Goldberg Sloan.

More information on the award can be found at www.southglos.gov.uk/concordebookaward and there is also a Concorde Book Award Blog http://concorde2013.edublogs.org where groups can join in and give their opinions on the books and find out what other young people taking part in the award think about the books.