This year’s Northern Ireland Book Award was launched at a special event at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution on Wednesday 24th October 2012. The event, which took place in the Christ Church Library at RBAI, featured very special guest – Joe Craig – author of the Jimmy Coates series.  Joe gave us a very funny and entertaining talk which demonstrated his natural talent for story telling. The 8 nominated books for the awards were introduced and we were given a flavour of each, followed by an X Factor Quiz where pupils pitted their wits against librarians from the audience. Six members of our Year 8 bookclub attended and had a very enjoyable morning. All of us came away eager to read all the nominated titles and to join in all the upcoming activities and events. If you would like to join in please see www.nibookaward.org.uk  for details. (Two copies of each of the nominated books are held in our school library so come along and ask to borrow so you can join in the fun)

What the pupils said:

“I thought Joe Craig was really funny and there were lots of really good books nominated for the award” – J.P O’Brien, 8M

“I thought Joe Craig, the author, was hilarious” – Patrick McVeigh, 8M

“It was really good because there was a quiz and the audience interacted with the people on stage” – Mollie O’Hare, 8L

“Joe Craig, the author, was absolutely hilarious!” – Sarah Corscadden, 8P

“I thought Joe Craig made up really funny stories”– Shruti Muthu, 8L

“The way the nominated books were explained made them sound really exciting” – Aoife Cahill, 8J