6 October 2011
For the third year, Abingdon were delighted to host the Oxfordshire Book Award. This award is presented for the best of children’s literature published in the previous year and is defined by the children, rather than teachers or librarians, who suggest the books for the longlist, the shortlist, and finally vote for the winners.
The 6 books shortlisted for the 2011 Oxfordshire Children’s Secondary Book Award:
| The Red Pyramid | Rick Riordan |
| Shadow | Michael Morpurgo |
| Boys Don’t Cry | Malorie Blackman (winner) |
| Little Darlings | Jacqueline Wilson |
| Cherry Crush | Cathy Cassidy |
| White Crow | Marcus Sedgwick |
The three books shortlisted for the 2011 Oxfordshire Children’s Picture Book Award:
| Angelica’s Sprocket’s Pocket | Quentin Blake |
| Zog | Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler (winner) |
| Me and You | Anthony Browne |
And three books were shortlisted for the 2011 Oxfordshire Children’s Primary Book Award:
| The Longest Whale Song | Jacqueline Wilson |
| Shadow | Michael Morpurgo (winner) |
| Dustbin Cat | Ingrid Lee |
At the awards ceremony, Axel Scheffler, illustrator for the winning book in the Picture Book category delighted his audience by drawing Zog and his companions as his acceptance ‘speech’. Michael Morpurgo, winner of the Primary Book Award, was unable to attend but sent a wonderful video in which talked about his inspiration for his book and finally, Malorie Blackman, winner of the Secondary Book Award regaled us with her story of her 82 rejections for her first story (and she has kept them in a file!). Also supporting the awards were authors SL Powell, Sally Nicholls and Jo Cotterill.
The winning authors talked to an audience of over 300, from more than 20 schools representing those that had taken part throughout the county – with stories and the research behind them. The ceremony ended in traditional style with a loud resounding countdown to the launch of Oxfordshire Book Awards 2012.
After the ceremony, queues of eager fans lined up for the authors to sign their books whilst enjoying a slice of the wonderful chocolate cake.
