Well, well, well. What a night! We promised you epic and we did not disappoint! Friday 10th July saw the culmination of our year long endeavours and the ABA Presentation Night 2015. We were so lucky this year as we were joined by all 5 of our final shortlisted authors. Annabel, Emma, James, Jon and Sally. Wozers! They were so lovely and very funny! Well folks, not only did we have 5 of the best authors in the country right now, but we were also joined by a phenomenal host, the amazing, the awesome, the bonkers Chris Riddell!

And Chris isn’t just any old host, he’s an author, an illustrator and he’s the new Children’s Laureate. Ooh yeah!

Chris live drew the authors all night as they talked about their books and answered questions from the huge audience. We were expecting about 200 people and in the end we had nearly 400. Woo! If you were there we hope you had as much fun as we did, and if you missed out this year fear not! We’ll be sending out the DVD in September. Photo gallery to follow ASAP.

So without further a-do… drum roll please …. *clears throat impressively* …. and the winners are:

Massive congrats to James for being the first author to win the ABAs two years in a row, and he has already confirmed that he will be our awesome host next year! Congratulations to Sally and Annabel too. Huge thanks to all our authors for joining us, we really couldn’t do it without your support. And final thanks go to our schools and supporters – thank you so much for all you do for us in your schools and with your students. We wouldn’t be the ABAs without you!

Don’t forget to like our Facebook page – that’s where you can see more of Chris’ awesome drawings from the night. And follow us on twitter too to be kept up-to-date on all our ABA news. @SussexABA

Hope you have a fantastic summer!

lots of love,

We are very pleased to announce that our 2015 Host will be the one, and only, Mr Chris Riddell! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Chris is an accomplished artist and political cartoonist for the Observer. He is well known for his collaborations with the author Paul Stewart on books such as Muddle Earth and the Edge Chronicles, and has also illustrated lots of picture books for younger children. Recently he has been writing and illustrating Macmillan’s award winning and captivating OTTOLINE young fiction series and the amazing GOTH GIRL. He has won many awards for his work, including the Nestlé Gold Award and the rare honour of two Kate Greenaway Medals.

As well as being our fantastic host, Chris will be joining our fabulous finalist authors after the event and will be signing copies of his brilliant books. Which will be on sale on the Book Nook stand.

You can follow Chris on twitter: @chrisriddell50 if you’d like to know what he’s up to right now. Or have a look at his website: http://www.chrisriddell.co.uk/

We hope you are enjoying reading your shortlist as much as we are! Don’t forget there’s still lots of time to enter our many competitions and don’t forget to have a good gander at all the ABA Goodies we’ll be selling on Friday 10th July. Tweet us your thoughts: @SussexABA

Drum roll please ……..

With much ceremony and fanfare we are (very) delighted to announce our 2015 Shortlist.

And what a list!!! Well done to all of you who voted. We are absolutely delighted, and we hope you are too. But you may have noticed that James Dawson is now on the shortlist, which means, sadly, he won’t be hosting for us this year. (Boo!) But he will be joining us as a panellist! (Yay!) We have a fantastic new host in the pipeline and as soon as it’s confirmed we’ll let you know who it is.

We’ve got lots of good stuff  coming to the website soon. Keep watching this space. And don’t forget to keep telling us what you think about the Shortlist. Tweet us @SussexABA or like our FaceBook page. 

Important bits:

• Book Nook Order Form: Amazing Book Awards Shortlist Order Form 2015
• Goodies Order Form: ABA GOODIES ORDER FORM

Wow! What a list!! In fact it’s so good we couldn’t choose just 15 books so we picked 17 instead! Now you have until Friday Feb 6th to send us your votes. Remember we need your TOTAL votes for ALL THE BOOKS, not just your top 5 books. We then put all the votes together and we’ll have our Shortlist. It’s so exciting! Don’t forget to tell us what you think about the list! Tweet us @SussexABA or Like our FaceBook page.

Drum-roll please …..

1. Soldier Dog by Sam Angus
2. The Private Blog of Joe Cowley by Ben Davis
3. Cruel Summer by James Dawson
4. Hate by Alan Gibbons
5. Half Bad by Sally Green
6. Now You See Me by Emma Haughton
7. The Messengers by Edward Hogan
8. Sawbones by Catherine Johnson
9. Dead Jealous by Sharon Jones
10. Split Second by Sophie McKenzie
11. Riot by Sarah Mussi
12. The Blood List by Sarah Naughton
13. Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher
14. No Where by Jon Robinson
15. The Mysterium: The Black Dragon by Julian Sedgewick
16. The Wall by William Sutcliffe
17. Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein

So now it’s over to you! Here are the voting forms:  2015 ABA Voting Forms

Have fun! And don’t forget to send your TOTAL VOTES to Amanda by Friday Feb 6th. APhelan@worthinghigh.net

The ABAs 2015 – Dates for your diaries:

• Book Recommendations received from Publishers/Schools by: 30th September 2014
• Subscription Deadline: Monday 3rd November 2014
• Long List A Announced: Wednesday 5th November 2014
• Long List feedback from schools deadline: Monday 12th January 2015
• ABA Long List Meeting: Wednesday 14th January 2015 (meeting to narrow down long list, all members welcome) @4.00pm Shoreham Academy)
• Long List B Announced: Monday 19th January 2015 (long list sent to schools for students/ librarians to vote for the books they would like to read)
• Shortlist Voting Deadline: Friday 6th Feb 2015
• Shortlist Announced: Monday 9th Feb 2015 (schools start reading)
• Order from the Book Nook from: Monday 9th Feb 2015
• Final Votes Deadline: Tuesday 23rd June 2015
• Awards Night: Friday 10th July 2015 (hosted by 2014 ABA Gold Award Winner – JAMES DAWSON) @6.15pm Shoreham Academy

Oh wow! What a night! Congratulations to the wonderful James Dawson our 2014 Gold Award Winner. We loved Hollow Pike, and so it seems did all of you.

Gillian Cross and Gemma Malley were fantastic Silver and Bronze winners respectively, and Jane McLoughlin and Rachel Ward were fabulous finalists.

We said Friday 11th July was going to be EPIC and we did not lie. It was truly amazing. Over 300 people came along to hear the wonderful Teri Terry host what was an awesome night. And for a book award that is only 3 years old we could not be happier with the turn out and the participation across the year.

Huge thanks to you too, our participating schools, students and book groups. We could not run these awards without your support. 26 schools took part this year, and if you all decide to return then with the 3 new schools that have already signed up we’ll start the new ABA year in September with 29 schools. Wooooohoooooo!

Here are some of our fantastic competition winners this year:

The Get Caught Reading Winners

The Redesign the Book Cover Winners

Our Reading Passport Winner was Blythe Colquham for her wonderful and thoughtful passport. We also gave honourable mentions (and prizes) to Isobel Sherlock-Fuidge, Pheobe Ricci and Billie Ayling, whose passports were also fantastic.

Our Film/Book Trailer winners were: Megan, Natasha, Rosie and Yuxin from The Weald School for their Hollow Pike Trailer. We’d love to show it to you here but unfortunately it’s a bit too big but you can find it on our YouTube channel (click on the button at the bottom of the page).

We’ll have lots of photos from the night soon but for now here’s some photos of you lot.

All that’s left to do is to ask you to save the date for the ABAs next year:

FRIDAY 10th JULY 2015

Thank you one and all for your support this year, and we can promise that next year won’t be epic it’ll be MASSIVE!

Wow! What an amazing year! And what a vote!! This has to be the closest year ever. (Honestly!) Every single vote counted. Now you’ll just have to wait until Friday 11th July to find out who has won our Gold, Silver and Bronze awards. (We’re SO excited we might pop!!!)

Hay! Have you got your golden ticket yet? No?? Well what are you waiting for? To get yours before it’s too late email us on:

info@amazingbookawards.co.uk

“I’ve got a golden ticket!” (Actually we’ve got lots!)

And don’t forget it’s still not too late to enter our competitions –                                   Deadline: Friday 27th June.

 IT’S GOING TO BE AMAZING!!

Wow! Can you believe it? We are only just 7 weeks away from the 2014 Amazing Book Awards Presentation Night (July 11th) Just 7 weeks!! Have you got your golden tickets yet? You can order them from us: info@amazingbookawards.co.uk

FRIDAY 11^th JULY

We are so lucky to have the wonderful and multi-award winning Teri Terry (author of the amazing Slated, Fractured and Shattered) returning to the ABAs to be our fantastic host for the evening. Teri has lived in France, Canada, Australia and England. Moving constantly has kept Teri on the outside looking in much of her life. It has given her an obsession with characters like Kyla in Slated, who don’t belong or find themselves in unfamiliar places. Teri recently left her job with Buck’s Libraries to write full-time and complete her research MA on the depiction of terrorism in recent young adult dystopian literature.

Teri will be joined by all 5 of our finalist authors. Gemma Malley, Gillian Cross, James Dawson, Jane McLoughlin and Rachel Ward. All the authors will be talking about their books, their inspirations and the very interesting lives. They will also be available to chat and sign their books at the end of the night. * The Book Nook, Hove, will be with us selling copies of our finalists (and Teri’s) books so you can buy them on the night. * The Friends of Shoreham Academy will be with us too, selling some yummy light refreshments throughout the evening.

We will be at Shoreham Academy again this year. Doors open at 6:00 pm, we really hope to see you there! (We will send you more details about this soon)

The closing dates for voting and the competitions (June 27th) are fast approaching so just keep reading!