For the first time in the awards’ history, three authors have a chance to win a coveted UKLA award, known as the teacher’s Carnegie, for an unprecedented second time. Philip Reeve with his collaboration with Sarah McIntyre, for Oliver and the Seawigs and Gill Lewis, with Scarlet Ibis, are battling it out on the shortlist for the 7-11 award and Elizabeth Wein is shortlisted in the 12 – 16 category for Rose Under Fire, the sequel to Code Name Verity, which won the category just just two years ago. There will also be a tough battle in the 3-6 category with a recent Red House Book Award winner, The Day the Crayons Quit by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers up against a past Greenaway medal- winning author Mini Grey with Hermelin the Detective Mouse.
This year 66 teachers from schools in Nottingham, Leicester, Derbyshire, Coventry and Birmingham are judges for the unique UKLA Book Awards. Their shortlists in the three age categories once again show the fresh perspective that class teachers bring to the judging process. In their search for books which can “enhance all aspects of literacy learning”, as required by the criteria, they have also selected international authors, debut authors and books in translation in preference to many more established names on the longlists.
