☰ My day at the Guardian Children’s Fiction Awards by Alex.

My day at the Guardian Children’s Fiction Awards by Alex.

Posted on: December 14th 2016 | Category:

On Thursday 17th November I was privileged enough to attend the Guardian Children’s Fiction and Young Critics awards. I was invited because I had previously written dozens of book reviews for the Guardian books website. I also entered a review for the Young Critics competition.

When we arrived at the Guardian newspaper offices in Kings Cross I was really excited. We walked past a display of three human-sized pigs, dressed in 20th century clothes. Very strange!

 

Inside the awards room, there were lots and lots of sweets plus a buffet of delicious food, like fried chicken, burgers, pizzas and tasty fizzy drinks. So far so good! But the best part of all was getting to meet some of my favourite authors.

I had a really interesting chat with S.F.Said, who wrote the Varjak Paw and Phoenix books. He said that ‘in these strange times books build bridges’ and that children can change the world. I thought this was very inspiring.

I also got to talk to Martin Stewart, whose book Riverkeep was longlisted and is quite macabre, and to Alex Wheatle, whose novel Crongton Knights (for 12+) won the big prize. He was so shocked when he won and he dedicated his award to libraries, saying that he educated himself through reading books from the library as a child. We must save our libraries!!



 

Also there was David Almond, who needs no introduction, Candy Gourlay, Piers Torday and many other writers for children. They all said that writing for children is the future and that children are so important because we are the future.

Then the Young Critics were announced – there were ten winners and I came 11th  for my review of The Marvels by Brian Selznick!! I was really pleased as it was my first attempt and I was the runner up. As if that wasn’t enough, we got taken on a tour of The Guardian offices and got a sneak preview of the next day’s newspaper.

It was a fantastic experience overall and one I’ll never forget.

← All school blogs

Request a Prospectus E-Newsletter Photo Gallery


Back to the top