Children’s Book Award Older Readers Blog Tour Round-up

The final leg of our blog tour took a look at the three amazing titles that our teenaged voters chose as their shortlisted books for older readers.

Golden Books Girl, Amy, started by telling us about book number 1;

Becoming Dinah

Written by Kit De Waal

Published by Hachette

Amy began by telling us more about the book;

“A YA coming-of-age road trip novel about obsession, self-discovery, female power, and the people we meet along the way – by Costa Award shortlisted author Kit de Waal. The perfect read for anyone who’s ever wondered where they came from and where they might be going next.”

This was followed with a series of interesting and thought-provoking discussion questions about the text and the themes it covers.

Here is an example of what she invites us to consider;

• Kit de Waal wrote Becoming Dinah as a response to Herman Melville’s classic novel, Moby Dick.
If you’ve read Moby Dick, what would you say are the key similarities and differences between the two books?

• There are no female central characters in Moby Dick. What do you think is gained by switching the perspective to that of a young woman?

You can find the complete blog post here.

We then heard all about book number 2 from Liam at BookWormHole; 

Two Can Keep A Secret

Written by Karen M McManus

Published by Penguin 

As well as a link to Liam’s full review of the book, there is also a fascinating question and answer session between the blogger and the author.

Here is a small teaser of some of the questions Liam asked;

Q1: In your nominated book, Two Can Keep A Secret, can you please tell us what you feel the
key themes of the book are, and what you want readers to take away from the reading
experience?

Q2: After the huge success of your debut, One Of Us Is Lying, you left Bayview for a
standalone novel, and then came back to write a sequel as your third book, (One Of Us Is
Next). Why did you decide to take this approach rather than continuing the Bayview story
straight away? Have you found any advantages and disadvantages to this approach?

To find out Karen’s answers take a look at the full blog click here.

Lucas from Glenthornelrc finished us off with a fabulous review of book 3;

On The Come Up

Written by Angie Thomas

Published by Walker

Liam tells a little of what we can expect from the book;

“Bri Jackson has a plan. That plan is to become a rapper, someone who shines a light on the situation she and her family endures on a daily basis in Garden Heights. Her mother, Jay, is a recovering addict, someone Bri doesn’t fully trust. Her brother Jay works at a pizza shop, he’s smart, headstrong and stays out of trouble. If only Bri could follow his lead.”

He then explains what he enjoyed so much about it;

“Thomas has once again developed a fully formed character that screws up just like every teen, except for Bri the consequences are much heavier compared to most. It’s an honest look at stereotypes, racism, white privilege and how we project our fears and expectations on African American youth. I think On The Come Up should be required reading, loved it.“ 

To read the full blog post click here.

Thank you to all three of our amazing bloggers and to the authors, illustrators and publishers for their support and assistance in supplying books, quotes, interviews and resources for the posts.

Look out for a full roundup of all twelve blogs we were lucky enough to visit on out fantastic Top 12 blog tour this year, posting on Friday.

You can keep up to date with all things Children’s Book Award by following us on Twitter @CBAcoordinator and visit our voting page to get involved in deciding which books will be this year’s winners.