The Academy hosted this year’s Carnegie and Greenaway  book prizes’ local shadow reading group event on Monday.
On the same day as the CILIP Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Children’s Book Awards were announced, the library in the Secondary Phase hosted the Kettering area annual event.
Students from five of the local secondary schools met with the KSA students to discuss and debate the eight books that had been shortlisted for this year’s prestigious book prizes.
Visiting students attended the event from Bishop Stopford, Latimer Arts College, Kettering Buccleuch Academy, Montsaye Academy and Southfields.
All the youngsters were put into mixed teams with students from each of the schools and in these groups they shared their views on the shortlisted books, and they collectively chose the books which they thought should be winners of this year's awards.
They chose ‘One’ by Sarah Crossan to win the Carnegie Medal for an outstanding children’s book written in English for children and young people.
They decided on ‘Lies We Tell Ourselves’ by Robin Talley for this years’ new Amnesty CILIP Award given for the shorlisted book which most distinctively illuminates, upholds or celebrates our personal freedoms.
They also chose ‘The Sleeper and The Spindle’ illustrated by Chris Riddell for the Kate Greenaway Medal which is awarded for an outstanding illustrated children’s book.
This year all the students agreed on the winners for the prizes and they were spot on with their predictions.
All of the titles they selected were announced as the actual winners later on in the day.
Head Librarian at KSA, Mrs Heidi Economou said: “It was a great event for celebrating and sharing the reading experience of the eight shortlisted books. The students had all really enjoyed reading the books for the last 8 weeks and in particular they enjoyed reading this year’s winning book, 'One'. It was also good to see the students from all the schools’ shadow reading groups predicting the winners of the prizes together and demonstrating that we were all quite in tune with the actual judging panel’s decision for this year.“

Our students have spent time writing reviews of the books that can be currently be found on a display window in KSA's Library or can be read online at: http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/grouphomepages/index.php?GroupID=10999

For more information on this year's CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Children's Book Awards visit: www.ckg.org.uk