Devon Schools Library Service Carnegie Event

Ten secondary schools from across Devon congregated at St Peter’s CofE Aided School in Exeter to celebrate the eight books shortlisted for the prestigious Carnegie Medal for Writing. Each secondary school created an engaging presentation, sharing what they most appreciated about their shortlisted book in exciting and innovative performances. The aim was to convince the other participating schools to vote for their story as the book they would most like to read.

All the schools performed to a very high standard and produced thoughtful and creative presentations that really captured the key ideas of their chosen book. ‘The Boy I Love’ written by William Hussey, and presented by Colyton Grammar School, was chosen as the winning book that everyone would most like to read. Colyton school shared a very moving portrayal of the story, which captured the profound impact of the trauma homosexual soldiers faced during World War One. ‘Wolf Siren’, written by Beth O’Brien and performed by St Cuthbert Mayne school, and ‘Not Going to Plan’, written by Tia Fisher and performed by Torquay Girls Grammar school, were a close second and third. Wolf Siren has since been announced as the winner of the UK Literacy Association Book Awards and the Carnegie Medal for Writing, as well as winning the Shadowers’ Choice award too.

Visiting author, Luke Palmer, (writer of the novels ‘Live’, ‘Play’, ‘Grow’ and ‘Big Words’, as well as a poetry book, Homunculus) captivated the students with an inspiring author talk, then expertly critiqued each of the performances, appreciating the unique qualities of every one of them. After the event, Luke had lunch with a group of St Peter’s students engaging them in informal book talk, before delivering a brilliant workshop to a collection of year 9 students focused on the scintillating idea of destruction. All the students were enthralled in the writing process, impressing Luke with their engagement in the workshop, their creativity and their writing expertise.

Thank you to Devon Schools Library Service for producing the event and providing students with this incredible opportunity. Thank you as well to St Peter’s School in Exeter for organising and hosting the event, to Luke Palmer as the expert author and well done to all the schools that participated. The students were a real credit to their schools and should be very proud of themselves.