Find out which books teachers think are the best! The winners of the UKLA 2020 Awards, sponsored by LoveReading4Kids, LoveReading4Schools and Reading Cloud, have been announced. Find the winners plus all the books on the shortlist and the longlist below.
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3-6 UKLA Shortlisted titles
3-6 UKLA Longlisted Titles
7-10 UKLA Shortlisted Titles
7-10 UKLA Longlisted Titles
11-14 UKLA Shortlisted Titles
11-14 UKLA Longlisted Titles
Information Books 3 - 14+ Shortlisted Titles
Information Books 3 - 14+ Longlisted Titles
The Winners!
The winning book in the 3-6 age category: Mixed by Arree Chung . Macmillan
The winning book in the 7-10+ : The Eleventh Trade by Alyssa Hollingsworth Piccadilly
The winning book in the 11-14+: No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen Andersen
The winning book in the Information category: Counting On Katherine by Helene Becker and Dow Phumiruk. Macmillan
Highly Commended : Child of St Kilda by Beth Waters. ChildsPlay
The judging process uniquely includes assessing the impact of the books within the classroom and the student’s response to them and it was very notable that it was books with themes of inclusion and empathy that were the most popular.
The unique UKLA Book Awards are the only awards to be judged entirely by teachers and are looking for texts that can “enhance all aspects of literacy learning”. The 2020 process has also itself been unique with the challenge of the COVID-19 lockdown striking just as the 70 teachers from around Oxford and in Renfrewshire were set to come together to choose their shortlists. The 12 judges, nominated from their number, who had the task of judging all 24 shortlisted books in all four categories to find the winners, then had to do so without being able to share the books with their classes and frequently with only digital copies of the books available to them. But just as schools have been finding virtual ways to teach during lockdown, the virtual judging discussions were just as passionately argued.
Headteachers welcomed the opportunity to receive new books for their schools and for their teachers to widen their knowledge of recent children’s titles. For UKLA, giving classroom practitioners the opportunity to read a number of new children’s books is as important as finding an overall winner. Research carried out by members of UKLA (Cremin et al 2008) clearly demonstrated the links between teachers’ knowledge of children’s books and the likelihood of pupils becoming successful readers. Despite this evidence, teachers are seldom given time to read new books or funding to purchase them when they do.
LoveReading4Schools and LoveReading4Kids are proud to be award sponsors.
"What another beautiful selection of books on the UKLA’s 2020 shortlist. Some of our absolute faves of the year; the UKLA committees and teacher judges have done a wonderful job of curating a stunning selection of quality texts and great reads to engage every age range. LoveReading4Kids and LoveReading4Schools are delighted to again partner with the UKLA to help encourage reading for pleasure and engender a lifelong love of reading in children” Deborah Maclaren Director of LoveReading4Kids
Chris Lockwood says: “It was a pleasure to work with such a committed, creative and insightful group of teacher judges. They have chosen some outstanding titles which will make the final selection in June extremely difficult, because all of these books are potential winners of our award”
12 teachers nominated from the 70 involved in the shortlisting will now form the final judging panel and have the challenging task of reading all the shortlisted books in all categories. Plans for the final judging meeting have had to adapt to the constraints imposed by the Covid-19 epidemic and similarly the winner’s announcement will be postponed until later in the year. A date and venue will be announced as soon as possible
For more information on the UKLA Award visit www.ukla.org/awards or @UKLA
