Looking for ‘the best literature on offer for use in the primary classroom’? Look no further! The NS Teachers’ Book Award was set up this year with the aim of finding just that. Since October, teachers, teaching assistants and school librarians across the country have been voting for the shortlisted titles. And the winners were announced at a ceremony on Saturday.
I’m thrilled to announce that the winner in the Poetry category was … my book Buzzing!
The award ceremony was a fantastic occasion, with home-made buns and cakes aplenty, including book buns!
A lovingly made (and very delicious) book bun at the NSTBA ceremony
I was very pleased to meet there 12-year-old Tayler, who had interviewed me about my book back in September.
With interviewer Tayler
And it was fabulous to meet so many other talented children’s authors who had been shortlisted in the other award categories, i.e. Picture Books, Quality Fiction, Read Aloud and Information.
With NSTBA authors Tom Moorhouse, Huw Powell, Stephen Lenton, Sharon Tregenza and Sam Gayton
I also thoroughly enjoyed meeting the members of the ‘Just About Books’ group (linked to the Federation of Children’s Book Groups), who had set up this award. They had put so much time, effort and dedication into the whole enterprise, from book selection through book reviews, interviews, photographs and website creation, to shortlisting, selecting the winners and putting on the ceremony. It was hugely uplifting to see so much commitment to the importance of books in children’s – and teachers’ – lives.
Torie, the brilliant Book Bun lady, with her copy of Buzzing!
The group’s website is an excellent resource for anyone looking for quality children’s fiction. I really recommend a visit. You’ll see there that they state ‘Children’s literature is our passion’. That certainly came across at the award ceremony.
The Just About Books group said that this award was ‘born out of a desire to celebrate the very best in children’s literature’. It is a huge honour to have been recognised by them as offering ‘the very best in children’s literature’.
With my award at the NSTBA ceremony
Congratulations to the authors of the other winning books, which are:
- Picture book – Shifty McGifty and Slippery Sam by Tracey Corderoy & Steven Lenton
- Quality fiction – The River Singers by Tom Moorhouse
- Read aloud – Hercufleas by Sam Gayton
- Information – Maps by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski.
Thank you to everyone at the Just About Books group (especially powerhouse Sue Wilsher) for a fabulous journey. And thank you, too, to my publishers Brambleby Books, without whom there would be no Buzzing! book. It was a real treat to have Nicola and Hugh Loxdale of Brambleby Books with me at the ceremony.
You can order your – signed – copy of Buzzing! here. And if you’d like a Buzzing! visit to your school, just get in touch.
Anneliese Emmans Dean – www.theBigBuzz.biz – Bringing poetry to life
