Hampshire Book Award - June 2022

On Tuesday 28 June, six enthusiastic Year 8 readers headed to Alderwood School in Aldershot to discuss six books for the Hampshire Book Award.  After discussion with keen readers from other schools in Hampshire, all the students voted and a winning book was announced.  This book, as well as winning the award,  will also become one of the Year 8 class readers for Calthorpe Park next academic year.  It’s great to know that future Year 8s will be reading a book endorsed by Year 8 readers!

A big thank you to those who took part who committed to reading the shortlisted books and who confidently conducted themselves during discussions proving themselves to be a credit to the school.

Here’s what some of our students had to say:- 

‘I really enjoyed my experience in HBA.  It was both very enriching and it got me back into reading.  I had fun exploring different genres that I would not always read.  I think Alan Gratz definitely deserved to win as his book was enriching and engaging.  It was interesting talking to other students about our views on the books, especially because they were from completely different schools.  Many schools had different overall favourites and it was cool to see which ones they enjoyed more.’ – Lily T

‘…we went to the HBA Voting Day in Aldershot.  We’ve spent several weeks reading the shortlisted books and making up our opinions on them.  At the other school, we were put on tables with students from other schools and discussed what books we liked.  We eventually voted on the books and then did a literature quiz, where my table got 45/60 right.  After this the winner got announced … which was actually my favourite one.  I hope that more comes out of this because all of this was really enjoyable.’ – Sophie H