Falkirk Council

Hundreds of pupils from local secondary schools gathered at Falkirk Town Hall in January for a unique and exciting event: the first Falkirk RED Children’s Book Awards.

Falkirk Council launched RED - Read, Enjoy, Debate - to promote the enjoyment of reading in school and at home. Nominations were invited for paperback books published in 2005, suitable for second and third year pupils, published in English or Scots, which had the ‘wow’ factor.

Five books were short-listed and voting took place in schools in December.

The event was the culmination of 18 months’ planning, choosing a short-list from 100 nominated books and intense debate in schools.

The Red Awards were sponsored by leading Scottish pottery designer Barbara Davidson, of Larbert, who designed and made a plate for the winning author.

Also supporting the RED Awards was Palimpsest Book Production Ltd of Grangemouth, which sponsored the Book Review Competition, and Blast Off Books from Linlithgow.

Pupils played a big part in the awards ceremony with Braes High School media team filming the event and St Mungo’s High radio station recording it.

Read all about the RED Awards in this special report for Falkirk Council News by Laura Blackhurst and Lauren Robertson from Falkirk High and Kirsti Walker from Braes High School who were there on the day.

A popular choice

Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy emerged triumphant in the battle for Falkirk Council's first RED Book Award. When the announcement was made the applause around the hall was deafening.

The novel about a child who kills another child appeared alongside four other titles on the shortlist: Tamar by Mal Peet, Montmorency by Eleanor Updale, The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson and Airborn by Kenneth Oppel.

Second and third year pupils from all schools in the Falkirk area read the books, voted for their favourite then attended the awards ceremony on January 17 to discover the winner.

The atmosphere, as the day began, was one of excitement.

Before the big event, school pupils from every secondary school had been reading, debating and, on the most part, enjoying the five books and coming to their decision.

Speaking to the voting pupils in December it was evident this award has helped to encourage them to read, and read more widely. 'I'd never heard of any of the books before, let alone read any,' commented one pupil at Falkirk High.

Two of the authors, Eleanor Updale and Mal Peet, took time out of their busy schedules to be there and, during lunch, pupils had the opportunity to get their books signed by the authors.

After the event Yvonne Manning, Principal Librarian said: 'It was a fantastic, full day, celebrating five outstanding books. For each of these books to have made the shortlist really shows that they have something special. Regardless of whether they won or not, it is evident that each and every one of the five short-listed novels was worthy of the RED Book Award, having encouraged so many to Read, Enjoy and Debate.'

What the authors said

At a lively question and answer session with Mal Peet and Eleanor Updale pupils posed clever and mature questions. The authors responded with very detailed and amusing answers including anecdotes about times in their lives when their writing was disturbed by their surroundings.

'You know, we often talk about the torture of writing but actually it’s fabulous,' Eleanor Updale told the audience. 'The most important letter in "RED" is the "E": Enjoy. For me as an author, the most important thing is that you enjoy the books. I think days like this are a good thing. They really help young people to engage with the books.

'It's actually really unusual for me to meet with the readers. It's very nice to find out what your books are about! The thing with writing is once a book is out there, it no longer belongs to you and each person interprets everything differently', said Mal Peet.

Winner Anne Cassidy sent a message to the pupils, in a piece entitled Why I Wrote Looking for JJ, which her representative Georgia Lawe read out. She said. 'As a writer this was a question that I wanted to explore. Writers can imagine what led to these situations. This is our job. We imagine'.

Collecting the award on Anne’s behalf from Falkirk Council’s Convener of Education and Leisure, Councillor Tom Coleman, Georgia said, 'Anne will be doubly upset that she can’t be here! I read this book a few years ago and it’s stayed with me. I think it has touched a lot of people.'

Dressing for the occasion

To get into the spirit of the day, everyone involved had been encouraged to wear a red accessory, with a prize for the best effort.

Enthusiastic teachers and librarians showed off red hair ornaments, hats, wands and even polka dot tights.

But it was the pupils who made a spectacular entrance clad in their red gear. Everything red imaginable was on display from cowboy hats and beanies to a Tommy Cooper doppleganger sporting a rather fetching red fez. Some eager folks had even dyed their hair scarlet for the day. Steven Williamson, of Graeme High, won for his t-shirt with RED printed all over it.

Each of the eight secondary schools gave presentations on one of the short-listed books. There were some memorable moments and bravely attempted performances, with some dressed in the costumes of the characters.

And the winners were . . .

As well as the award for best book, competitions were held throughout the day.

The pupils’ book review competition was held as part of their English curriculum studies and was won by Louise Haldane, Graeme High School, for her fabulous review of Looking For JJ. 'Everything just came to me', she said, 'It only took two hours to write'.

Runners up were: Graeme Dickson, Bo’ness Academy; Mhairi De Sainte Croix, Braes High; Fraser Niven, Denny High; Suzanne Maxwell, Falkirk High; Kathryn Mackey, Grangemouth High; Rachael Disbury, Larbert High; and Rachel Meade, St Mungo's.

The Book quiz was won by a team from Graeme High.

What's it all about?

The idea behind the RED awards is to help young people to appreciate and understand books and debate them with others.

The first meeting of the RED book award team was held in June, 2004. At this stage the awards were just an idea by library support staff for schools.

The five short-listed books were all seen to have the ‘wow’ factor and were introduced into the curriculum of certain English classes in each secondary school last year, two years after the initial idea. Voting took place on December 14 and 15 and the votes were counted in a secret location on December 18.

'The RED award is intended to achieve much more than encouraging young people to read,' said Falkirk’s Convener of Education and Leisure, Councillor Tom Coleman. 'RED aims to stimulate and encourage real discussion about books and this has been taking place in our secondary schools over the past year. We are  delighted that the first RED award has been embraced so enthusiastically by pupils and schools and look forward to  developing this very successful formula even further in future.'

- Spring 2007 -