Year after year, the Shropshire Bookfest Book Award project succeeds in unlocking what many children perceive as being a closed and forbidding world of books and reading, providing the catalyst for learning how to enjoy reading, and thereby widening the potential and life-chances of those children immeasurably.

The precise alchemy for how the project achieves this varies from one child to another, and much of it is to do with the power of good children’s writing and the special appeal of the shortlisted books.

But we also believe that it is based on some of the fundamental principles of the Book Award project itself: handing the voice and control to the children in selecting books; removing all sense of target-setting and measurement; focusing instead on fun, creativity and imagination; giving children the freedom to discuss and share their responses to books within a community of readers; and celebrating the authors, giving children an insight into their lives, their work and the inspiration for their writing.

Please click here to download this full report on how the Shropshire Bookfest Book Award initiative can be used as a regional blueprint for other organisations, librarians, groups to use in their own areas.