The students had originally written their reviews for the Carnegie/Greenaway shadowing scheme earlier this year and Librarian Wendy McCabe submitted them for publication. Well done to Seren Devine, Lana Green, Lizzie Markova, Keira Hazelwood, Eliza Donnelly, Zahra Khan and Daisy Ahearn, who all received a complimentary copy of the October issue of Teen Titles. It was the second consecutive year that Seren has had a review published, and for the rest it was the first time they have seen their name in print.

Seren said: ‘I think you have to talk about the book, but also how it affects you as you are reading it. I wrote about Wolf Hollow last year and Rook this time around.’ Keira and Lizzie both wrote about The Hate U Give. Lizzie said: ‘I am quite proud seeing my name in print and was surprised as I didn’t know that the review had been sent off.’ Lizzie added: ‘ I like teen novels and it was an interesting story.’

Zahra’s submission was on Night Shift: ‘I wrote about how the illustrations matched what the book was about. It was quite difficult to word it right to get your point across properly.’ Daisy said: ‘I did my review on Beyond the Bright Sea as I liked the book and could relate to it. It feels a bit weird to have your review in a magazine where everyone can read it.’ Eliza said: ‘After the Fire was my favourite book so I felt I could write the most about that one. I’ll definitely do the shadowing scheme again next year.’

Librarian Wendy McCabe said: ‘Reviews, especially by your peers of a similar age, is one of the best ways to get young people to read books. Teen Titles is published nationwide and gives an honest, unbiased view of the newest young adult fiction and non-fiction books available. The reviews sent in were part of the students work from the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway book shadowing programme where the students read and assessed the shortlisted titles.’