A BOLTON secondary school is playing a reading role in the national search for the children's author with the most.

A group of pupils at Withins School are shadowing judges of the Carnegie Medal - awarded to the writer of the outstanding book for children - with high hopes of securing a trip to London to the awards ceremony.

The initiative is the brainchild of Anne Smallwood, manager of the Learning Resource Centre at Withins and English teacher Jan Azakli.

As a qualified librarian, Anne heard about the scheme through the Library Association. She contacted the Association and found out which books had been nominated for the medal to date.

She and Jan them selected a group of Year Nine pupils to read the 35 books which are already making their presence felt and encouraged the students to read them and make their own assessment.

"The scheme has been hugely successful," said Anne. "Parents are telling me that they're having to switch bedroom lights off at 1.30 in the morning because their children are so taken with some of the books."

The youngsters also hold regular discussion groups to assess what they got from each book and are currently working on selecting a final short list of books which they will forward to the Library Association. They hope their "shadowing" will so impress the Association they will select them to go down to London for the awards ceremony later this year.

With bets currently riding on Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Dome by J.K Rowling to secure the top prize, the Withins pupils are hoping their literary tastes match those of the competition organisers.

And far from restricting reading of the favoured books to just a handfull of students, the school is encouraging other pupils to read the nominated books by posting regular bulletins about each on a special notice board within the Learning Resource Centre.

"As well as encouraging reading among the students it has given a real sense of purpose and we're delighted by the pupils' response to it," added Anne.

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