Beaumont readers help to launch the St Albans Schools Book Award

At the end of last term, a group of Year 7 and Year 8 Book Club students took part in a fantastic Discussion Day to explore and celebrate the three books shortlisted for the inaugural St Albans Schools Book Award. The event was organised and hosted by the Library at St Columba’s College.

Our students joined keen readers from five other St Albans schools to take part in a series of activities, discussions and quizzes based around the three books in the running for the prize: River of Ink – Genesis by Helen Dennis, A Seven Letter Word by Kim Slater and The Boy at The Top of the Mountain by John Boyne.

Shortlisted writer Helen Dennis also attended the event and gave an insightful and very amusing talk about her life as an author and the process behind her writing. The students were each asked to vote for their favourite book on the shortlist and at the end of the event A Seven Letter Word was declared the winner of the award.

It has been a pleasure to take part in the very first St Albans Schools Book Award which we hope will become an annual event. Congratulations to our Book Club members who represented the school so well at the Discussion Day and to all the Beaumont students who read the shortlisted books and made the award such a success.

Here is what Ella (8A) had to say about the event:

‘The book award was really fun. There was a quiz and the winners got chocolate! There was a discussion about the three books and then a vote. My favourite was A Seven Letter Word. Helen Dennis was funny and answered loads of questions. I met people from other schools and really enjoyed it.’