BIBLIO-BUZZ 2023
Welcome to Biblio-buzz 2023 – the Alexandra Palace Children’s Book Award!
As we count down to all the fun kicking-off in January 2023, we’re extremely excited to announce our six shortlisted authors and their amazing books! Here’s Jack Meggitt-Phillips, who our young readers nominated as the winner of the 2022 prize, with all the details of the Biblio-buzz 2023 shortlist, selected by the Haringey School Librarians Group...
Thanks Jack! So that’s:
The Consequence Girl by Alastair Chisholm
The Elemental Detectives by Patrice Lawrence
Twitch by M. G. Leonard
S.T.E.A.L.T.H Access Denied by Jason Rohan
Tyger by SF Said
The Bird Singers by Eve Wersocki Morris
Biblio-buzz is run by Alexandra Palace’s Creative Learning team in partnership with Haringey Library Services and is aimed at young people aged nine to 12 years old. From January 2023, participants are challenged to read six shortlisted texts, before voting for their favourite. Biblio-buzz 2023 will culminate at an award ceremony on Friday 24 March at the Alexandra Palace Theatre, where participants 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 email the team at learning@alexandrapalace.com
This year our official suppliers are Muswell Hill Children’s Bookshop and Pickled Pepper Books who are offering discounted packs of the shortlisted books to schools or individuals who take part in Biblio-buzz.
Email education@pickledpepperbooks.co.uk or admin@childrensbookshoplondon.co.uk to order your packs.
S.T.E.A.L.T.H Access Denied
by Jason Rohan
When his dad disappears, Arun Lal is amazed to discover that he was secretly working on a classified project and has been kidnapped by people intent on stealing it.
Along with his geeky best friend Sam and tough-talking Donna, Arun is plunged into a race to rescue his father and find his creation before the thieves can turn it into a destructive global weapon…
Jason Rohan lives in west London with his wife and five children. When he was 16, he talked his way into an internship at Marvel Comics in New York, where he sold his first story; later he taught English in Japan for five years. He currently works as a mobile telecoms project engineer, building the networks of the future.
The Elemental Detectives
by Patrice Lawrence
Welcome to eighteenth-century London, where there are four Elemental spirits that most humans know nothing about: the fiery Dragons, airy Fumis, earthbound Magogs and the watery Chads. Marisee’s grandmother is the Keeper of the Wells, and regularly talks to the Chads. But now she’s disappeared, just as a sleeping sickness overtakes London. The infected people breathe out a yellow cloud, and dream of everything they’ve ever wanted. But some are awake and chasing Marisee, controlled by a mysterious Shepherdess, who wants to find Marisee’s grandmother…
Patrice Lawrence was born in Brighton and brought up in an Italian-Trinidadian household in Sussex. Her first novel ORANGEBOY was one of the most talked-about YA books of 2016 and won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize for Older Fiction and the Bookseller YA Book Prize that year. Ever since, her work has consistently featured on prestigious prize lists and her recent novel EIGHT PIECES OF SILVA recently won the Crime Fest Award for Best Crime Novel for Young Adults and the Jhalak Children’s and Young Adult Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour. Patrice has been awarded the MBE for services to literature in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Twitch
by M.G Leonard
Twitch is a twelve-year-old with three pet chickens, four pigeons, swallows nesting in his bedroom and a passion for bird-spotting. On the first day of summer holidays, he arrives at his secret bird-watching hide in the local nature reserve to find police everywhere: a convicted bank-robber and murderer has broken out of prison and is hiding in Aves Wood. Twitch soon finds himself entangled in the hunt for the dangerous prisoner. Can he turn his talents for bird-spotting to detective skills, and find the missing loot?
G. Leonard is an award-winning, bestselling writer of children’s books, as well as a member of Authors4Oceans. Her books are sold in forty countries, and there is currently a TV series in development based on her Beetle Boy series. Her first picture book, The Tale of a Toothbrush, is out now. She is also co-author of the critically acclaimed Adventures on Trains series. Before becoming a writer, M. G. Leonard worked as a digital media producer for the National Theatre, The Royal Opera House and Shakespeare’s Globe. She lives in Brighton with her husband, two sons and pet beetles.
The Consequence Girl
by Alastair Chisholm
The world of Colony is in ruins. No one knows what caused society to begin tearing itself apart – but the secret may lie with Cora, a girl living on the mountainside far away from others. Cora possesses an extraordinary gift: the power to see back in time, from an event back to its causes. Even more incredibly, sometimes she can change events. But the present is looking for Cora, and she is forced on the run – and must decide who she is, what she can do … and how to fix the future.
Alastair is a children’s author and puzzle creator. As a puzzle creator he wrote quite a lot of books of Sudoku and other puzzles for kids and grown-ups, and as an author he writes picture books and middle-grade fiction. Alastair lives in Edinburgh with his wife (who is lovely), two teenagers (who are lovely but very loud), and a cat named Maudie, who is yowling at him even though there is clearly food in her bowl, look, it’s right there, look. His hobbies include writing and playing games on his phone when he should be writing.
Tyger
by SF Said
“There are three doors that I may show you. You will find a different kind of power behind each one…”
Adam has found something incredible in a rubbish dump in London. A mysterious, mythical, magical animal. A TYGER.
And the tyger is in danger.
Adam and his friend Zadie are determined to help, but it isn’t just the tyger’s life at stake. Their whole world is on the verge of destruction. Can they learn to use their powers before it’s too late?
SF Said’s first book, Varjak Paw, won the Nestlé Smarties Prize for Children’s Literature, and was listed by BookTrust as one of the 100 best children’s books of the past 100 years. The sequel, The Outlaw Varjak Paw, won the BBC Blue Peter Book Of The Year.
His third book, Phoenix, was shortlisted for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Award and won the Haringey Children’s Book Of The Year (now the Alexandra Palace Children’s Book Award).
His new book Tyger is published by David Fickling Books and is illustrated by Dave McKean, like his other books.
SF Said is a fellow of the Royal Society Of Literature, and has written about children’s books for both the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph, given talks at the British Library and on BBC Radio 4, and is a passionate campaigner for literacy, libraries and reading for pleasure.
The Bird Singers
by Eve Wersocki Morris
Strange things have been happening to Layah and her younger sister, Izzie, ever since their mother dragged them to a rain-soaked cottage miles from anywhere in the Lake District: there is a peculiar whistling at night, a handful of unusual feathers appear and a sudden, frightening banging at the door. And their mother is behaving very oddly. Layah is mourning the loss of her dear grandmother in Poland – and can almost hear her voice telling her the old myths, legends and fairy tales from that place. And as the holiday takes on a dark twist, Layah begins to wonder if the myths might just be real.
Eve Wersocki Morris grew up in North London and has been making up stories her whole life. Despite being diagnosed with dyslexia aged 12, she has not let that stop her literary ambitions and wrote her first full novel aged 13. She went on to study English at Nottingham University where she wrote, directed and performed in plays and was Arts Editor of the student magazine. She volunteers with Coram Beanstalk Literacy Charity as a reading helper for children, and has written book reviews for Stylist, Times Literature Supplement and The Bookseller.
Eve’s grandparents came to the UK in 1946 as Polish refugees and were placed in Staffordshire. Her grandmother was born in Sanok in the mountains of Poland. She celebrates her Polish heritage at Christmas Eve with barszcz soup, pierogi, pickled sledzie (herring) and hazelnut torte. Her fascination with European myths and fairytales have inspired her debut children’s book.