Press
Press Release
09/10/2008
Three UK schoolchildren to judge prestigious Costa Children's Book Award 2008
Wednesday 10th September 2008: Three schoolchildren aged between 10 and 13 have been selected from over 1800 entries to join the judging panel for the prestigious 2008 Costa Children's Book Award.
Sylvie Pope (aged 10) from Abingdon, Kambole Campbell (aged 13) from Farnham and 12-year-old Gwen Baines from West Kirby, were chosen by bestselling children's author Jacqueline Wilson in the Costa Young Judges competition.
Open to all children aged between nine and 13, the competition finds three young judges to sit alongside three adult judges on the panel which decides the winner of the Costa Children's Book Award.
Entrants were invited to submit a 200-word review of a favourite book to enter the competition run via www.costabookawards.com with the winning three young judges chosen for the first time this year by children's author Dame Jacqueline Wilson.
"I was thrilled to be asked to pick the three winners of this competition and the standard of the entries was excellent," commented Jacqueline Wilson. "Many congratulations to Sylvie, Kambole and Gwen for writing wonderful reviews which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. I think they'll make terrific judges."
Sylvie, Kambole and Gwen will join the three adult judges who this year are author Victoria Hislop, John Newman, children's buyer at the Newham Bookshop in East London and Northamptonshire Schools Library Service Adviser, Sue Polchow.
"With a national competition of this size, there's always a feeling that it will be won by other people," said Gwen, whose winning review was of The Witch's Boy by Michael Gruber. "Now I'm one of those 'other people' and it's an amazing feeling!"
The volume and standard of the entries was so high this year that the competition judges also selected ten reviews to be awarded Highly Commended status in addition to the three winning entries.
Sylvie, whose review of The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis secured her a place on the judging panel said, "I feel amazed to have been chosen as a judge! I'm really looking forward to reading and discussing the books and I want to say thank you to the Costa Book Awards for giving me this wonderful opportunity. I have always enjoyed reading and literature," added Kambole, "being selected is a real achievement for me."
The Costa Book Awards identify and celebrate some of the most enjoyable books published in the UK. There are six awards in total - five category awards (Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book) and, from these, one overall winner - the Costa Book of the Year.
The winner of the Costa Children's Book Award 2008 will be announced on 6th January 2009. In addition to their judging role, Sylvie, Gwen and Kambole will be invited to a celebrity-packed awards ceremony in London on Tuesday, 27th January 2009, at which the Costa Book of the Year will be announced.
Originally established in 1971 by Whitbread PLC, Costa announced its takeover of the sponsorship of the UK's popular and prestigious book prize in 2006.
Competition Statistics
A total of 1818 entries were submitted to the 2008 Costa Young Judges competition. Of these, 1451 entries were from girls and 367 from boys.
My Sister Jodie by Jacqueline Wilson was the most-reviewed book submitted to the competition with 36 children entering reviews on the title. This was followed by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K Rowling (32), Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (30), Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman (24), and Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak, with 20 reviews each.
439 entries were received by children born in 1996, 406 entries from children born in 1995 and 372 entries by children born in 1997. The lowest amount of entries came from children born in 1994 with only 122 reviews received from this age bracket.
To read the winning reviews and for more information on the Costa Book Awards, visit www.costabookawards.com.
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For further information please contact:
Amanda Johnson
Costa Book Awards Press and Publicity
Telephone: 07715 922 180 or amanda@amandajohnsonpr.com
Notes to Editors
About the Costa Book Awards:
* The 2007 winner of the Costa Book of the Year was A.L. Kennedy for Day (Cape).
* The winner of the Costa Children's Award 2007 was Ann Kelley for The Bower Bird (Luath Press).
About Costa:
* Costa is now officially the largest and fastest-growing coffee shop chain in the UK. It opened its 1000th milestone store in March 2008 in Moscow.
* Costa was founded by Italian brothers Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1971. With 764 stores in the UK and over 300 internationally, Costa has enjoyed a remarkable period of growth since it opened its first store. It now operates in 23 countries.
* Costa Coffee is the first UK coffee shop chain to commit sourcing Rainforest Alliance Certified Coffee.
* Costa's in-store baristas are all coached in the art of coffee making at the company?s unique Costa Coffee Academy based at its own roastery in Lambeth, London.
* Costa has been voted as one of the strongest UK brands by experts and consumers and has been awarded 'Superbrand' status.
* Costa set up a registered charity (no.327489) in 2006 called 'The Costa Foundation' to give something back to the communities within the countries from which Costa sources its coffee beans.
* Costa is part of the Whitbread family of brands.
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