11:14am Tuesday 7th July 2009
By Daniel Binns
HUNDREDS of school children from across the borough packed in to Woodford Green's Sir James Hawkey Hall for the Redbridge Children's Book Awards.
Both pupils and professional authors were honoured at the event, which was organised by the Redbridge Schools Library Service.
Eager children have been working since January on a borough-wide contest to write the best short stories and poetry pieces.
Local author and teacher Joe Layburn was on hand to judge the stories, while David Fulton, a lecturer in creative writing at Brunel University, closely examined the poetry entries.
In the end, Tanya Li-Chay-Chang of Woodford County High won the poetry contest while Miriam Gibson, from Wanstead High, scooped the story prize.
Both received a £10 book voucher for their efforts.
The event saw 12 secondary schools and two library reading groups also taking part in voting for their favourite children's author, with a further four schools and one reading group voting for their top writers prior to the event.
Of books published in 2008, pupils voted Ginger Snaps by Cathy Cassidy the top read in the children’s section, while Forget Me Not by Anne Cassidy won in the teenage category.
Cllr Weinberg, the council's cabinet member for leisure, said: “The book award has been very popular since it begun six years ago and it’s good to see so many children forming opinions on their favourite books and becoming involved.
"There are some fantastic authors that write for a young audience and the book awards is a great way of highlighting some of those.“
Six authors - Sally Nicholls, Jean Ure, Anthony McGowan, Celia Rees, Justin Somper and Joe Layburn - attended the day, held last Thursday (July 3), where they also took questions from students and signed copies of their books.
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