What is it like being part of a Spark! shortlisting panel?

You have two more weeks to sign up to be a shortlisting panellist for the 2024-25 Spark! School Book Awards. This is a fantastic opportunity to read and discuss the latest and greatest children’s fiction and to select the books that go through to the longlisting and shortlisting stages of the Spark! Book Awards. 

Here’s what some of our 11+ panellists had to say about the experience:

"Taking part in judging for Spark! was a brilliant opportunity for me as a professional, and for our school. I was exposed to brilliant middle grade and teen books that I definitely never would have read otherwise - I resist books for boys and so never would have got round to the best book of the decade, Nathanael Lessore’s ‘Steady For This’. I also got to connect with other librarians and book pros from across the U.K., which gave me valuable insight into nation-wide initiatives and ideas. This gave me loads of great ideas for my own school library! And then when it came to participating in the awards in school, I already had a great insight into all the shortlisted books and could get ahead of my students. I was able to plan library lessons and book club activities without taking the books out of the hands of my students, and I could plan the school’s interaction with the awards far ahead of the shortlist announcement. I’d strongly recommend participation for anyone who’s involved in children’s books!"

Zoe Fitzgibbon

"I was lucky enough to be selected as a panellist for the Spark! Book Awards for the 11+ category. As a secondary school librarian, I absolutely love keeping up to date with the latest books that my students might like, and this felt like a magic opportunity to discuss them with like-minded people and have the honour to be involved in the decision making as to which books made it to the shortlist. It felt daunting at times because of the weight of responsibility - and we didn’t always agree! - but we were given training at the beginning of the process and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I would do it again in a heartbeat and have plenty of ideas how to get my students excited about the Sparks! Book Awards for this year!"

Leila Hewetson

"Being on the panel for the Spark! Book Awards was an amazing opportunity! As an English teacher in charge of reading across a secondary school, it broadened my knowledge of 11+ novels and allowed me to discuss them with other experts of young adult literature."

Jenny Rock

"The Spark! Awards 2023-2024 introduced a new category; 11+ fiction, so I applied to be one of the panel judges as a way of exploring new (published 2023) fiction proposed by publishers for this age group. After previously having experience as a judge for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, I knew the benefits of having access to and being able to read a variety of new market titles with a specific goal in mind. After being accepted, each judge was allocated around eight novels to read, of 33 that were submitted by publishers. My personal goal was to not only read all of my allocated eight, but try to read as many of the 33 titles for maximum exposure. Our first task as a panel was to narrow down the titles to a longlist of 12 in just over a month (October-November 2023). I managed to read 18 of the novels in their entirety, and a further nine of the openings of novels that I did not complete due to their subject matter, style of writing, or personal taste. Reading the Spark Awards books has definitely reinvigorated my reading more Middle Grade fiction, and I have made an effort to read at least one MG book a month and recommend it to pupils in the library."

Charli Dunnaker

Applications to join our shortlisting panel close on Friday 27 Sept and our shortlisting panel training will take place on Monday 14 Oct 2024. 

Sign up here.