‘The First Year’ by Matt Goodfellow
Big Book Award 2026 shortlisted title:
Nate’s eleven and has just finished Primary School. After a challenging final year, life is looking up. His brother has recovered from a life-threatening heart condition, he’s got the love of his mum, brothers and Auntie San, and he’s off to Secondary School with his two best mates.
But while he’s making new friends and avoiding the fists of Turner, his old nemesis, and struggling to come to terms with a strict new teacher and a sense of isolation from his brothers, a sudden surprise appearance in Nate’s life threatens to throw him completely off course. And The Beast – the anger he tries so hard to control – reappears.
Will Nate find a way to keep himself and his family together?
Published by Otter-Barry Books
The Big Book Award 2026 Longlist Reading Panel of children from Lilleshall Primary School said…
“I loved this book’s storyline and description.”
“An emotional storyline, characters that reach out.”
“The characters are believable and I think I relate to Nate.
“I am delighted that The First Year has been picked by the students for the Shropshire Bookfest Big Book Award 2026 shortlist. Thank you to everyone involved. It means a lot to me that Nate’s story continues to reach as many young people as possible.” – Matt Goodfellow
About the author
Now a multi-award-winning full-time poet, Matt Goodfellow visits schools around the UK and beyond, inspiring children and adults to get involved with poetry through his performances and workshops and working with organisations including National Poetry Day, the Forward Arts Foundation, the Premier League, the National Literacy Trust, Book Trust and CLPE.
His debut novel, told in verse, The Final Year, illustrated by Joe Todd-Stanton, written for middle-grade readers, won the CLiPPA Award for Children’s Poetry 2024 and the Children’s Book Award for Older Readers 2024 (Federation of Children’s Book Groups) amongst many others, and was shortlisted for The 2025 Carnegie Medal for Writing. The follow-up to The Final Year, The First Year, was published in April 2025.
He is also the author of Caterpillar Cake, illustrated by Krina Patel-Sage and shortlisted for the CLiPPA award in 2022, Shu-Lin’s Grandpa, illustrated by Yu Rong and shortlisted for the CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal 2022 and a contributor to CLiPPA-shortlisted poetry collection Being Me: Poems about Thoughts, Worries and Feelings, all published by Otter-Barry Books.
He has written two poetry collections for older readers: Let’s Chase Stars Together, shortlisted for the CLiPPA award 2023, and Tomorrow We Begin, published in 2024. Matt lives in Stockport.
Visit Matt’s website to find out more about him and his writing: https://www.mattgoodfellowpoet.com/
Matt is also currently Writer in Residence at Book Trust, where he’s focusing on the theme of ‘voice and choice’ – bringing to life the idea that children thrive when they can choose books that reflect their voices, lives and communities. https://www.booktrust.org.uk/about-us/news-updates/meet-our-new-writer-in-residence-matt-goodfellow/
Pupils taking part in Book Award 2026 are invited to post their comments and reviews below. (All comments will be moderated by Bookfest before they’re published.)
34 responses to “‘The First Year’ by Matt Goodfellow”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Registered Charity Number: 1120177
Website made by THE CURIOUS
The First Year was one of my favourite books out of the six. I liked the bit when Nate got into a fight with Turner. 😎😎😎😎😎9/10🐕🦺🤖.
At the start of The First Year, the book wasn’t my type of story. It got amazing after page 100. My favourite part of the book was the fight that happened in the hallway.
I really enjoyed this book; I liked how Nate had lots of choices to make.9/10🪿🦒
The First Year is amazing, and I love how it’s written. This book could be relatable to lots of people. 10/10
I liked the beginning of The First Year, but as I read on, I began to dislike it. There was too much slang, also the story was pretty confusing. Overall 3/10👌
So far very good and also confusing. 🙂
I loved your book. It was easy to read when you got in the flow. The big spaces helped. This book is great and I would read it 100 times.
Really helps people that are struggling with their mental health. This book shows true resilience and hope. This shows to never give up!
Absolutely a 5 star read.
This book was truly amazing. I couldn’t put it down! I wouldn’t recommend to younger kids but for older kids I think it was amazing!!!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I like how the book was laid out. It was unusual, but it fits.
The First Year is a great book but the way it is written is like a poem and the slang language is really annoying. But the story is 5 stars.
8.5/10 book needs to come 1st.
I like the book, it was really interesting and good but I haven’t finished it. Can’t wait to finish it. Totally recommend it. 👌👌👌❤️❤️❤️👍👍👍😄😄😄
Nate seems to have a true struggle within him and in his life outside his head. I recommend this to people struggling with finding themselves. The characters were also brilliant and funny and Muna was written perfectly in a way that makes her relatable and unapproachable at the same time.
I really like The First Year because I like how it is about a boy and his friends going from primary school to secondary school and how much stricter secondary school is compared to primary school.
Very exciting. I always want to know what will happen next.👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
I really like this book. It’s really good. I like all the poems, but did not like all the time skips.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Very nice book! I like the characters and scene settings. It’s the first book I read out of the six, Inkbound is next. I give The First Year a 8/10, it is good but not as good as the original Final Year. 🙂
I love The First Year, but it had lots of slang in it. Other than that, I loved it.
Very good book. 👍 It was 8/10. At the start it was very boring but then it got better after page 100.
I liked The First Year because it tells you about his life and how he tells you about what his friends are doing as well as him. I don’t think it is my favourite book but other people might like it more than me.
I haven’t finished all of the book yet but I’m loving it so far. I think that adding Dylan being addicted to sppppiddddeeeeyyy mmmmmaaaannn is what helps the story come together, it’s so good. And The Final Year is so good.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I really liked the book to see if Natey got on at secondary school and I found that it was written using slang words like summat and da and I found it was interesting that he got to find his dad. I found out the book was an emotional read.
I really like this book so far, it’s really interesting. I haven’t finished it but I would still rate it a 5/5 stars because it’s really a great book with lots of mystery and twists and turns and seems amazing. I suggest you make a third book. It would get lots of reads.
I loved The First Year! 🙂 I read the Final Year with my class and I really enjoyed it. My favourite character is Dylan. I also think you should write a third book and express thoughts about Jax and Dylan’s dad. Love your book, BYE!
I LOVED the book with all the slang and poetry. It deserves to at least come second. It took quite a big turn though, which I personally wasn’t a fan of. Overall 3/5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐.
I like this book because of the slang ,adventure and a whole lot more!
I also like this book because it’s a very quick read .
My favourite character was Dylan/spider man/turbo terror.
I haven’t quite finished this book yet .
I really enjoyed this book. It was the first of the Book Award books I chose to read. I have read the first book in the series as well and loved it! I recommend this book as it is funny and also sad in parts. I really liked it and would recommend it to people who find reading tricky, as the pages are short and use some simple words. It guides you through the reality of secondary school and shows you what certain people can be like. My favourite character was Dylan because of ”I’M SPIDEY MANNNNN!” I recommend this book. It’s amazing!
This is one of the best books in the world. I really enjoyed this book and the one before it. Very well done to the author for such an amazing book. I really hope there is a third one coming out soon. I really liked this book because of all the slang and the twists. I give it five stars!
I loved your book. It was a great idea to do a poem book and I loved the slang language in it. The story was really good and sad, especially with the dad leaving Nate. It’s currently my favourite.
I really liked how the book started with Nathan’s brother and how he had a scar because I haven’t read the final year yet but hopefully I will.
I also liked it when Nathan and his dad met because I thought it was quite sweet and I think I should vote for it.
I love this book. I think I might read more of your books. I love how there’s more main characters. Sometimes there’s words that I can not understand.
I recommend doing a third book. Lots of people are going to read it and love it.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I could not put this book down, it’s my favourite book so far!
I would definitely recommend that you read it.
The First Year was an extremely heart-warming book, and the different language was a nice change from your everyday book. We loved how you broke the book up into parts and the lovely flow of the sentences and layout. The illustrations were eye-catching and one of a kind! There has been lots of wonderful reviews about the book; many saying that they nearly cried at the end. Overall amazing book 5/5 stars!
I love this book but I haven’t finished it yet, I’m currently on page 216. I wonder what will happen next in the story? I’m excited to finish it!
This book is really good, I haven’t read it all yet but I’d definitely give it 5 stars!