TEENAGE book worms across Warwickshire have been voting for their book of the year.
And the winner was Kathryn Foxfield’s thriller “Tag, You’re Dead”.
The book won the Warwickshire Teen Book Award 2023 after a vote by Year 9 and 10 students in secondary schools across the county.
The annual award is hosted by Warwickshire Schools Libraries Services with the aim of encouraging more students to enjoy reading for pleasure through school and library settings.
The award is an autumn term initiative that takes place between September to December each year, with a reading list chosen by the experienced WSLS team alongside valuable input from several secondary school librarians.
The students are then empowered to select the final shortlist of books nominated for the award by taking part in speed shortlisting events throughout autumn term.
The shortlist of books this year included Happy Head by Josh Silver, Promise Boys by Nick Brooks, Tag, You’re Dead by Kathryn Foxfield and With Fire in their Blood by Kat Delacorte.
To participate, the students were encouraged to read all four books from the shortlist and to vote for their favourite book as the winner, using the criteria that the book must be ‘a page-turner that pupils would highly recommend to others’.
The initiative culminated in a virtual award ceremony on December 12, where students from secondary schools across Warwickshire attended to find out which author was pronounced the winner as voted for by their cohort.
All four of the authors attended the virtual event to provide inspiration and engaging conversations about the shortlisted books, as well as discuss what it’s like to be in the publishing industry.
