Voting has opened for the 2018 Children’s Book Award, the only book award voted for entirely by children. The award is coordinated by the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, a charity celebrating its golden anniversary this year.

There are three age categories:

• Younger Children (Picture Books)
  • Edgar and the Sausage Inspector by Jan Fearnley
  • Mrs Mole, I’m Home! by Jarvis
  • The Secret of Black Rock by Joe Todd-Stanton   
  • I Dare You by Reece Wykes

• Younger Readers (age 6-11)
  • The Island at the End of Everything by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
  • The Explorer by Katherine Rundell
  • The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson

• Older Readers (age 10 -18)
  • The Ink by Alice Broadway
  • I Have No Secrets by Penny Joelson
  • Optimists Die First by Susan Nielsen

Children must read all of the books in their respective category and then give each of them a rating (1 -3 or 1-4 depending on the category).

This is a wonderful opportunity for teachers to engage students in a class discussion about books. What makes a good book? Which of the books is their favourite? Why do they like it? They can also write a letter to the author of their favourite book or do a drawing based on it and include it with their vote.

There is also a blog tour taking place, which kicked off on the 5th of March and continues until the 13th April. Starting with the picture books category, the first blog post covered The Secret of Black Rock and the second one covered Mrs Mole, I’m Home! For a full schedule of the blog posts, take a look at the Children’s Book Award website. Or follow @cbaCoordinator on Twitter.

Voting closes on the 18th May and the results will be announced on the 9th June at a ceremony in London.

How exciting!! Let’s get reading!!! Have you got a favourite already? I know I do. Although, I’m sorry to say adults are not allowed to vote!