Miss Rogers (LRC Manager)

This year the LRC marked its third year hosting the Yoto Carnegie Book Shadowers’ Club.

The Yoto Carnegie is one of the UK’s longest running and best-loved children’s book awards, recognising outstanding reading experiences created through writing and illustration in books for children and young people. The Awards mission is: To champion librarians to inspire and empower the next generation to create a better world through books and reading. Read more about the initiative here.

The scheme tasks students to critique and review the titles read and then they are finally invited to vote for their favourite book as part of the Shadowers’ Choice Award, which are announced alongside the Medal winners at the annual winners’ ceremony.

On Thursday 16th June, in a ceremony held at the British Library, the Gold Medal Yoto Carnegie Medal was awarded to October, October by Katya Balen.

The BGS Book Shadowers’ have been a dedicated collection of students who have participated fully in this wonderful reading scheme. The following quote is by BGS Book Shadower, Lennita Pitt (Year 9).

“The Carnegie shadowing scheme is the first reading scheme I have taken part in. The scheme included a selection of books that I really enjoyed reading, introducing me to a lot of new authors and writing styles. And the videos available on the website explaining the authors’ thoughts behind their novels were really helpful to gain context.

The titles that stood out for me personally were: Everyone Dies Famous in a Small Town by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock, Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam and Tsunami Girl by Julian Sedgwick.

“Sue-Hitchcock uses multiple characters and links them together to create the plot of her novel, which provides me (as the reader) with different perspectives and angles on the story. Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam use beautiful poetry to convey their truth, and Sedgwick uses manga and generally good storytelling to educate readers on the natural disaster that took place in 2011 in Japan, all in the perspective of the relatable protagonist ‘Yuki’.”  

Olivia Davies (Year 10) add: "I really enjoyed taking part in the shadowing scheme, as I found that It introduced me to books, and authors I would of never read otherwise. Each novel had a different focus and message that I was drawn into in turn; which made it very hard for me to choose my favourite."

The scheme is a wonderful way of engaging students in reading for pleasure. It is a scheme that the LRC is proud to offer and we look forward to meeting our new book Shadowers’ in 2023