Cranleigh Schools announce shortlist for the Awesome Book Awards 2021

Cranleigh Schools are pleased to announce the shortlist for this year’s Awesome Book Awards. Now in its fifth year, it celebrates the best works of fiction for young readers.

The shortlist titles are: Malamander by Thomas Taylor, The Garden of Lost Secrets by A. M. Howell, The Girl Who Stole an Elephant by Nizrana Farook, The Strangeworlds Travel Agency by L. D. Lapinski, and The Switching Hourby Damaris Young.

Previous winners include: Ross Welford, Peter Bunzl, Tamsin Winter and Aaron Baron. 

To be eligible for the 2021 award the entrants had to be debut novels, suitable for able readers in the listed age group, appealing to both boys and girls and available in paperback from May 2019.

Based on the success of this year's virtual event, and owing to current restrictions in place across the country, we are planning to run the 2021 Awards in the same way.

The winner will be announced on 6th May 2021 via an online event hosted on the Awesome Book Awards website. This can be watched by all from 10am and shared by teachers and librarians with their classes. The event will consist of readings by shortlisted authors, as well as a number of children who have participated in this year’s Awards, special animations for each shortlisted book, and of course the announcement of the 2021 winner by Adam Baron — winner of the 2020 Awesome Book Award for his debut children’s novel, Boy Underwater.

Schools across London and the South East are invited to register to take part in the 2021 Awesome Books Awards at https://www.awesomebookawards.com, by reading the books on the shortlist and voting for their favourite. Hundreds of pupils will get the opportunity to attend the virtual awards event.