Secondary pupils across Falkirk Council have voted Anne Cassidy’s Looking for JJ the first winner of the authority’s RED Book Awards for the best in children’s fiction. The council launched RED - Read, Enjoy, Debate - to promote the enjoyment of reading in school and at home. Nominations were invited for paperback books published in 2005, suitable for S2 and S3 pupils, published in English or Scots, and which had the “wow” factor.
Out of 100 nominated books, five were shortlisted:
* Looking for JJ, by Anne Cassidy;
* The Star of Kazan, by Eva Ibbotson;
* Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel;
* Tamar, by Mal Peet;
* Montmorency, by Eleanor Updale.
Pupils from each of the council’s eight secondary schools gave presentations, including dramatised excerpts, on the five nominated books which had been debated and voted for by hundreds of pupils.
Book tokens were presented to the best book review from each school, with Louise Haldane from Graeme High named as overall winner.
