Pupils at Widcombe Junior School in Bath have received the six books that have been shortlisted for the Royal Society’s The Young People’s Book Prize.
The prize was set up to encourage the publication of inspiring science books for children. This is the fifth year running that the school’s librarian, Kate Maughan, was part of the judging panel for the prize, which this time around features Can You Get Rainbows in Space, Engineers Making A Difference, Bodies Are Wonderful, The Expanding World of Data, Where Are You Really From and Mission Arctic.
‘We first signed up to be a judging panel for the Royal Society’s Young People’s Book Prize in 2019 and have been lucky enough to be chosen to take part every year since then,” explained Kate Maughan, School Librarian. “Our school librarians love having the chance to read and compare the six shortlisted books, and to think about which book deserves to win the prize. We then get to keep the books for our library for everyone to enjoy.
“Taking part in the prize introduces us to a whole range of brilliant new books about science for children – such as Catherine Barr’s Fourteen Wolves, which was shortlisted in 2023. We loved the book so much, we invited Catherine to visit our school and spent the week exploring all her other wonderful picture books about conservation.”
