St Colmans at Award Launch

Six lucky year 9 pupils travelled to Belfast on Wednesday for the launch of the N.I Book award now in its second year. R.B.A.I was the venue and the guest speaker was Chris Bradford, well known Author of the Young Samurai series of books. It turned out to be a truly sword wielding knuckle crunching event. He enthralled his young audience with tales of Samurai and Ninja and drew gasps of wonder when he produced a genuine Ninja sword and brandished it over their heads.

A local book award aimed at pupils aged 11- 14 it is the brainchild of two school librarians, Ann Cowdrey (Bangor Grammar) and Kathy Lindsay (RBAI) who wished to give young people an award scheme that is local and pupil led. This year over 30 local schools are taking part and there will be a variety of activities throughout the year. Log on to the website for more details www.nibookaward.org.uk/

The titles short listed for the award this year are:

An Elephant in the Garden by Michael Morpurgo

Blood Ransom by Sophie McKenzie

Diary of a Wimpy Vampire by Tim Collins

Prisoner of the Inquisition by Theresa Breslin

The Ring of Earth (Young Samurai) by Chris Bradford

The Red Pyramid (The Kane Chronicles) by Rick Riordan

Time Riders by Alex Scarrow

Unhooking the Moon by Gregory Hughes