Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize 2024

Donna Pocock-Bell, Librarian

Juniors were joined by Wootton St Peter Primary School to judge this year’s Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize shortlist.

This year, both schools were on the national judging panel for the prize and had been considering the merits of the six shortlisted books since they received their free copies of each title in the autumn.

During the morning, students were split into ten mixed groups to discuss the books and prepare a short group presentation about one title. After a balloon debate in the lecture theatre, we held a vote to see which book was the favourite.

Sophia (Year 5) said: ‘I really enjoyed mixing with children from the other school and I had a lot of fun debating our favourite books’.

Arabella (Year 5) added: ‘I think next year we should have a whole day together! It was so much fun and I hope we do it again next year. I rate the day 5 stars.’