ISLINGTON TEEN VOTE AT WATERSTONES

Last night I went along to the Islington Teen vote awards at Waterstones Islington, organised by Islington Libraries. Over the past year Islington teenagers have been voting for a book which they read in 2011 which changed their life. Four teenage authors were invited along to read from their work and discuss books which have influenced them. The audience consisted of local authors,(Malaika Rose Stanley), public librarians (Geoff, Tony, Pamela and Rosemary) writing students and a group of girls from Mount Carmel with theirSchool Librarian, plus members of the general public. 

From left: Candy Gourlay, Sara Grant, Sophie McKenzie and Katie Dale

 

The authors present were Candy Gourlay (Tall Story), Sara Grant (Dark Parties) Sophie McKenzie (Girl, Missing and many more), Katie Dale (Someone else’s life). Each of the authors read an excerpt from their books. Katie, Sara and Sophie all opted to read the first chapter of their books. Without exception, they were all dramatic and exciting. There was an audible gasp at the end of Katie’s reading, where a girl discovers that her birth mother is not the woman she thought. Sophie read an excerpt from ‘Child, missing’ where a young girl has lost her sister and the chapter also comes to a dramatic conclusion. Sara’s book was different, set in a dystopian world where everybody looks the same; once again the reading was captivating. Candy (despite her stressful journey on the ‘slowest bus on Holloway Road’) read a chapter from later in her book, where her eight foot basketball player character arrives in Britain for the first time. Candy’s great sense of humour was apparent from both her reading and conversation.

After the readings the panel were asked which books had most influenced them recently. Answers included Rebecca, The Hunger Games, To Kill a Mockingbird and The Five Chinese Brothers. I particularly liked Sophie’s list of thirteen of her favourite books, one of which was selected at random by the girl who asked the question, as she acknowledged what a difficult question that is to answer; selecting one book out of all those wonderful books out there. Questions were then invited from the audience and the panel were asked how long it took to write a novel – four months (much to Candy’s disgust) to six years – did they imagine their books being turned into films (Sara said it would be difficult, given that all the characters look the same). They were also asked about censoring their writing for a teenage audience.
Geoff James from Islington Libraries then presented the winning students with ITunes vouchers and the authors signed copies of their books. The most popular book voted for was The Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney*  It was a very enjoyable evening and I could have listened to the authors talking for a lot longer.

* The Wimpy Kid books occupy places 3 4 5 and 7 in EGA's top ten most borrowed books since September 2011