The Amazing Book Awards

Shoreham Academy, Kingston Lane, Shoreham-by-Sea, BN43 6YT

Email us at:

info@amazingbookawards.co.uk

Important Upcoming Dates

Friday 21st June 2024 - The ABA Awards Night

On this page we will try to answer some of your most frequently asked questions. If, we haven’t answered your particular query please do not hesitate to contact us directly and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible. (See the “contact us” link for further details.)

QUESTION: WHAT ARE THE ABAs?

The ABAs, or to give it its full name, The Sussex Coast Schools Amazing Book Awards, is a book award set up at the start of 2011 by a small group of school librarians from West Sussex. The group felt that secondary school students, particularly those in years nine and ten, were so often overlooked by those bigger book awards, which frequently aim themselves at students in lower years. The ABAs is a chance to let the students take control. Although we, with the help of the publishers and nominations from participating school librarians, create the long long list, the students choose the long list and then a shortlist of 5 and also vote for their favourites. There is no overall veto or “panel vote”, the books chosen by the students are the winners.

PREVIO9US WINNERS:

2012

~ GOLD AWARD … Mike Lancaster – 0.4

~ SILVER AWARD … Kevin Brooks – iBoy

~ BRONZE AWARD … Phil Earle – Being Billy

2013

~ GOLD AWARD … Teri Terry – Slated

~ SILVER AWARD … Edward Hogan – Daylight Saving

~ BRONZE AWARD … Sam Hawksmoor – The Repossession

2014

~ GOLD AWARD … Juno Dawson – Hollow Pike

~ SILVER AWARD … Gillian Cross – After Tomorrow

~ BRONZE AWARD … Gemma Malley – The Killables

2015

~ GOLD AWARD … Juno Dawson – Cruel Summer

~ SILVER AWARD … Sally Green – Half Bad

~ BRONZE AWARD … Annabel Pitcher – Ketchup Clouds

2016

~ GOLD AWARD … Carla Spradbury – The 100 Society

~ SILVER AWARD … Teri Terry – Mind Games

~ BRONZE AWARD …  Eve Ainsworth – 7 Days

2017

~ GOLD AWARD … Holly Bourne – Am I Normal Yet?

~ SILVER AWARD … CJ Daugherty and Carina Rozenfeld – The Secret Fire

~ BRONZE AWARD …  Helen Dennis – River of Ink: Genesis

2018

~ GOLD AWARD … Penny Joelson – I have No Secrets

~ SILVER AWARD … Alice Broadway – Ink

~ BRONZE AWARD …  Simon James Green – Noah Can’t Even

2019

~ GOLD AWARD … M A Bennett – S.T.A.G.S.

~ SILVER AWARD … Matt Killeen – Orphan Monster Spy

~ BRONZE AWARD … Lauren James – The Loneliest Girl in the Universe

2020

~ GOLD AWARD … Holly Jackson – Good Girl’s Die First

~ SILVER AWARD … Simon James Green – Alex in Wonderland

~ BRONZE AWARD … Bex Hogan – Viper

2021

~ GOLD AWARD … Dean Atta – Black Flamingo

~ SILVER AWARD … Lucy Cuthew – Blood Moon

~ BRONZE AWARD … Kiran Millwood Hargrave – The Deathless Girls

2022

~ GOLD AWARD …Liz Kessler – When the World Was Ours

~ SILVER AWARD … Vincent Ralph – Lock the Doors

~ BRONZE AWARD … SM Wilson – The Infinity Files

2023

~ GOLD AWARD …Rosie Talbot – Sixteen Souls

~ SILVER AWARD … Finn Longman – The Butterfly Assassin

~ BRONZE AWARD … Alex Bell – The Lighthouse

QUESTION: HOW CAN I SIGN MY SCHOOL/LIBRARY UP?

Any secondary school can sign-up for the ABAs, we are very happy to welcome one and all! It costs just £60 for the year and once you have signed-up you will receive, posters, bookmarks, certificates, stickers, badges, reading passports and unlimited tickets to the awards night.

If you’d like to sign-up this year please contact our membership advisor Rachel @ … info@amazingbookawards.co.uk

QUESTION: HOW DO WE NOMINATE BOOKS FOR THE LONG LIST?

Every September we accept nominations for the long list from our participating schools and publishers.

We only accept books that meet the following criteria:

  • Published for the first time in paperback between 1st June and 31st May that year
  • UK resident author only
  • Age appropriate … suitable for years 9 & 10 *
  • Must not be part of a series (unless the first volume)

* Students in younger years may participate but we will leave this at your discretion.

QUESTION: HOW DO WE VOTE FOR OUR FAVOURITE 5 BOOKS FOR THE SHORTLIST?

Once we have completed and compiled the long list we send this out to our participating schools; it’s then up to you how you pick your top five.

Some of the methods used:

  • Students look at the book cover and read the book blurb (images and blurb supplied by us) then vote for their top 5.
  • Students read online reviews of books (Amazon) and the book/publisher blurbs.
  • Students do all of the above and look at authors’ websites and look for book (video) trailers on YouTube.

QUESTION: WHEN IS THE SHORTLIST ANNOUNCED?

With much fanfare we usually announce the shortlist on the first Friday in Feb. on our website, twitter feed, Instagram feed, and Facebook Page. Then we will send you an amazing welcome pack with everything you will need for the coming year. See https://amazingbookawards.co.uk/new-join-us/welcome-pack/

The 2012 Shortlist:


The 2013 Shortlist:


The 2014 Shortlist:

Picture4
The 2015 Shortlist:

Shortlist

The 2016 Shortlist:

2016-shortlist-covers

The 2017 Shortlist:

The 2018 Shortlist:

The 2019 Shortlist:

The 2020 Shortlist:

The 2021 Shortlist:

The 2022 Shortlist:

QUESTION: HOW DO WE ORDER COPIES OF THE FINAL 5 BOOKS?

You can order your books from the Book Nook or from Browns Books for Students.

——-> http://www.brownsbfs.co.uk/pages/BBFS/schools-book-awards/amazing-book-awards

——-> http://www.booknookuk.com/

QUESTION: HOW DO WE VOTE FOR OUR WINNERS?

The final votes are the most important votes the students will cast. Each student must read all five books in order to be eligible to vote. We will provide you with a voting form, which you will need to photocopy for every student you have taking part. Students then give their favourite book 5 points, their second favourite book 4 points and so on down to 1 point for their least favourite. This levelled voting is very important. It helps us precisely determine first, second and third place. Once you have collected all the votes you will need to count them and send us an acute score. e.g. iBoy … 55 points, Being Billy 30 points. (We will also give you a form for this.)

Scoring:

  • 5 … AMAZING
  • 4 … GREAT
  • 3 … OK
  • 2 … ALRIGHT
  • 1 … A BIT PANTS

QUESTION: HOW DO WE GET TICKETS FOR THE AWARDS PRESENTATION NIGHT? ARE WE LIMITED TO CERTAIN NUMBERS?

The celebration evening is open to all students who took part, their parents and families, as well as yourself and staff members from your own school. Nearer the time (early June) we will send you more information about the evening, timings and expected  special guests. The Book Nook will be in attendance and will be selling copies of the final 5 authors’ works, which they will then sign at the end of the evening.

Every year we aim to have a special guest presenter. Previous presenters include: Andrew Hammond (author of the Crypt series), Susanna Quinn (author and journalist), Jane McLoughlin (author of At Yellow Lake), Mike Lancaster (author of 0.4 and 1.4 and previous ABA Gold Award Winner), Teri Terry (author of the Slated Series), Juno Dawson (Double ABA gold award winner), the Children’s Laureate Chris Riddell and Holly Bourne.