I am delighted to be able to announce the winner of this year’s HWS Book Award! I have missed having a voting box on the issue desk and watching people debating their choices, but it has been exciting to see the online votes coming in.
The shortlist was very strong, and the result was very close; for a while I thought I was going to have to announce a three-way tie! But, in a last-minute flurry of votes, Small Town Hero emerged the winner.
You’ve made a great choice, HWS. This is a brilliant book: thought-provoking and highly readable, an imaginative page-turner with a very broad appeal.
Author Patrick Neate was kind enough to send a specially recorded video message to our students from his home in Zimbabwe.
If you haven’t already read your way through the shortlist don’t forget that we have physical copies in the LRC, and that most are also available from our school eBook library at Soraapp.com (click here for more details if you don’t know about our eBook library).
The shortlist for this year’s HWS Book Award was:
- With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
- Chinglish by Sue Cheung
- Harrow Lake by Kat Ellis
- Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
- Deeplight by Frances Hardinge
- That Asian Kid by Savita Kalhan
- Eight Pieces of Silva by Patrice Lawrence
- The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave
- Small Town Hero by Patrick Neate
- Burn by Patrick Ness
Highgate Wood School LRC home page 