The joint schools' Abingdon Carnegie Forum took place at the Guildhall Abingdon. Ninety students attended, from the six secondary schools. They have been avidly reading the eight books nominated for the prestigious children's book award, the Carnegie Medal. This event was the culmination of over 12 weeks of reading and reviewing, all conducted in their own free time, and gave them the opportunity to celebrate the best books of the year with other keen readers.
The day began with our special guest, young author Rachael Wing, who spoke with passion about her love of reading and writing. Published aged 15 whilst at Didcot Girls' School, Star Crossed was followed by Love Struck before she went to university to study Drama and Creative Writing. And Rachael is only 21 years old - inspirational!
All over the country students have been shadowing the Carnegie Medal: reading the shortlist and posting their reviews on a special website. Students from OLA met other keen readers to discuss the shortlisted titles and, in nine mixed school groups, present a visual review of their favourite book in front of a panel of judges and VIPs including Mayor of Abingdon Councillor Monica Lovatt and OLA's incoming Principal Mr Stephen Oliver.
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 and books. The students also voted for the Abingdon Carnegie winning book and shared a celebration Carnegie cake, which was made up of six cakes, with each school's named on the spine. Note the detail - an Olympic torch carrying pencils and Olympic rings bookmark. Many thanks to local cake maker Suzanne whose delicious cakes were most capably created to our design.
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 presentation of the shadowers' own responses to 'sell' the book to the readers of their reviews. The judges applauded the reviewers' excellent work which made them want to read all the books.
OLA Prizewinners:
Sam and Ellen received prizes for their Highly Commended book reviews. Charlie and Phoebe received prizes for Best Contributor in their Group.
Group presentations, lasting no longer than four minutes, took a variety of forms from TV chat show to key scenes. These were of a high standard and were exciting, interesting to watch, and involved 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 Blackbirds' who convinced them that My Name is Mina was the book to read. This group, which included Charlie, also won prizes.
Which book was voted by the shadowers as the Abingdon Carnegie Winner? It was Between Shades of Gray, an overwhelming winner with twice as many votes as second-placed My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece. The official winner of the Carnegie Medal announced during the day by CILIP, but not revealed until after our vote, was A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness.
