The joint schools' Abingdon Carnegie Forum took place at Abingdon Guildhall. Over eighty students attended, from the six secondary schools. They have been avidly reading the six books nominated for the prestigious children's book award, the Carnegie Medal. This event was the culmination of 10 weeks of reading and reviewing.
All over the country students have been shadowing the Carnegie Medal: reading the shortlist and posting their reviews on a special website. Fifteen students from OLA's Year 7 & 8 met other keen readers to discuss the shortlisted titles and, in nine mixed school groups, present a review of their favourite book in front of a panel of judges.
The judges had to decide which presentation would convince them to read that book, and also decided on the best book reviews. Prizes were given: book tokens, books and some edible prizes too. The students also voted for the Abingdon Carnegie winning book and shared a Carnegie cake.
OLA Book Review prizewinners:
Best Book Review for Out of Shadows - Anastasya
Highly Commended Book Review - Olivia
At the end of the Forum the chair of the judges, who were from the worlds of publishing, bookselling and education, spoke about how much they had enjoyed the day. They were impressed by the good understanding of the books shown in the reviews, the presentation of the shadower's own responses, whether positive or negative, and use of similes to express their opinions. Noting that all this reading and reviewing was conducted in their own free time the judges applauded the reviewers' good work and their often witty personal styles. The judges were persuaded by these reviews that they wanted to read Out of Shadows first.
OLA Best Contributor in Group winners:
These nominations were made by the group leaders for group work during the course of the day.
Best Contributor in Group - Isobel
Best Contributor in Group - Phoebe
Group presentations, lasting no longer than three minutes, took a variety of forms from advertisements to news reports and key scenes to a game show. The judges said what a high standard these were: witty, exciting, interesting to watch, involving all the students in each group, who took part enthusiastically. Hard though it was choose the judges decided that the Best Group Presentation should go to 'The Beggars' who convinced them that Prisoner of the Inquisition was the book to read.
Which book was voted by the shadowers as the Abingdon Carnegie Winner? It was Out of Shadows, with Prisoner of the Inquisition a close second. The official winner of the Carnegie Medal announced on 23 June - Monsters of Men.
Finally, a couple of comments from the Judges:
"I was startled by the excellence of the children's responses."
Fantastically organised and a really enjoyable day. The quality of reviews and presentations was amazing."
