A FANTASY fiction novel has been chosen as the winner of this year’s Concorde Book Award, South Gloucestershire’s literature prize for young people.

“Shadow Magic”, written by author Sarwat Chadda under the pseudonym Joshua Khan, beat off competition from five other young people’s fiction titles to claim the coveted award.

The Concorde Book Award is a “young people’s Booker” run by South Gloucestershire schools and public libraries in which groups of young people read a shortlist of novels.

Aiming to promote a love of reading among 11-14 year olds, and thousands of young people have taken part since it was launched in 2007, the children are encouraged to join a reading group, whether at school or in a local library, to read six books and talk about them with other group members, before voting on their favourite title.

Once again this year’s winner was chosen after an exciting district-wide reading challenge in which hundreds of young people from public and school library reading groups throughout South Gloucestershire read their way through a shortlist of titles.

Votes were cast on World Book Day and the winner was announced on Tuesday, March 6 at a gala event at the Bristol and Bath Science Park at Emersons Green.

The awards event saw a number of young people give presentations about their favourite books and conduct interviews with the shortlisted authors in attendance, who themselves each nominated an item to go in to ‘Room 101’, with the students voting for the winner. 

Presenting the award was Cllr Ian Blair, chairman of South Gloucestershire Council, who said he was “thrilled” to have been involved with the award.

“Congratulations to all the young people who have taken part, their enthusiasm and love for reading really is inspiring.

“My thanks go to South Gloucestershire’s libraries and schools who have worked together to organise this award, which celebrates young people’s reading and gives young people a stage to share their interests and achievements.

“Finally, congratulations to author Sarwat Chadda for his well-deserved win.”

Receiving the award, Mr Chadda said: “Wow, what a glorious day! Big thanks to all the readers!” 

Shortlisted books are made available from South Gloucestershire public and school libraries, and voting takes place on World Book Day in March each year.

For more information on the Concorde Book Award visit www.southglos.gov.uk/concordebookaward.