Search

Schools and Colleges

Welcome to Biblio-Buzz 2024 – the Alexandra Palace Children’s Book Award!

Biblio-Buzz is run by Alexandra Palace’s Creative Learning team in partnership with Haringey Library Services, schools and local bookshops and is aimed at young people aged nine to 12 years old.

Participants are challenged to read six shortlisted texts – see the shortlist below! – before taking on a range of literary challenges and voting for their favourite book.

Biblio-Buzz 2024 will culminate at an award ceremony on Friday 22 March in the Theatre at Alexandra Palace, plus a ceremony for the Haringey Library Service Award, where young people will meet the authors, get their books signed, take part in workshops and Q&As, and find out who the winners are at a very special ceremony.

If you are a young reader or a school looking to find out more about taking part in our literary challenge, please contact our team via learning@alexandrapalace.com

The 2024 shortlist is selected by a team of local school librarians, who are the founders of the Book Award:

When a young girl wakes up in the middle of the desert, she has no idea who she is. She’s wearing one shoe, a silky black dress, and she’s carrying a strange, heavy case. She meets Tarni, who is on a mysterious quest of her own. Together, the two girls trek across the vast and ever-changing Australian Outback in search of answers. Except both are also hiding secrets…

Eric’s best friend, Finn Jones, was the world’s biggest prankster. Now Eric can’t believe Finn’s not here anymore…or is he? Eric seems to be getting messages from beyond the grave, and as he follows Finn’s wild, cryptic instructions, his hope grows that he’ll find Finn laughing at the end. The journey also brings memories – and a truth that seems impossible to accept.

Twelve-year old Nyla’s dad died when she was four, or that’s what she’s been told. So when Grandma Frida insists she saw him in the supermarket, Nyla wonders if she is ‘time-travelling’ again – the phrase she uses when Grandma forgets…

Alfie Wright? Alfie Wrong, more like. Alfie has never really fitted in anywhere – he doesn’t have any friends, and even his mum seems embarrassed of him. So when he’s evacuated to a farm in rural Devon run by kind old Aunt Bell and her gentle giant of a son, Alfie can’t believe his luck.

India, 1855. The British rule, and all across the country, Indian magic is being stamped out. More terrifying still, people born with magic are being snatched from their homes. Rumour is that they are being taken across the sea – to England – by the all-powerful, sinister Company.

Sel Archer lives in a normal town with normal residents, except for one night a month . . . When the full moon comes out, almost all of the adults turn into werewolves, and it’s up to the young people to protect themselves from danger.