Avid readers from over a dozen local schools came together to enjoy the annual Bolton Children’s Fiction Award (BCFA) Celebration Day. This special occasion, hosted by Bolton School, is always a wonderful celebration of reading and this year the authors of all three BCFA shortlisted books were able to attend.
The audience for the day, which included some of Bolton School’s Junior and Senior school pupils, heard from Matt Goodfellow (‘The Final Year’), Piu Das Gupta (‘The Secrets of the Snakestone’) and Ben Davis (‘My Brilliant plan to fix everything’) in three separate talks in the Great Halls. Each author spoke about their shortlisted book, sharing their inspirations and delving into the plot and characters, as well as talking more broadly about the writing process and their current projects. The children were excited to ask questions and find out more.
As the day progressed, there were opportunities to buy books from a pop-up stall run by Ebb and Flo Bookshop, and to have books signed by the three BCFA nominated authors.
There was plenty of enthusiasm for the Award on the Celebration Day, and pupils left excited to take part in the vote in the summer term. The winner of the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award is decided entirely by young readers: teachers and library staff have no say in the vote, and so the winner really is the children’s favourite. The winning book and author will be announced later in the summer term.
Read about the launch of BCFA 2025 and the shortlisted books
