The Sue Harris YA Prize

The Buckinghamshire Children’s Book Award was launched in 2018 to promote the best books written for children and young adults that were published in the last 12 months. The aim of the Bucks Book Award is to inspire and empower young people to read more and to share their love of reading with others. We want to encourage reading for pleasure, independent choice, and wider reading habits.

WINNER 2022

Dark blue rising

Terry, Teri ISBN: 9781444957105
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The stunning first novel in a new speculative thriller trilogy from the bestselling author of SLATED. Tabby lives a transient life with her mum Cate, never sticking in one place long enough to make friends. Until one day, an accident changes everything. Cate is arrested and Tabby realises her life has been a lie: Cate is not her mother. As she adjusts to her new life, Tabby finds herself drawn to the ocean - the only place she feels happy - and enrolls at a swimming summer school to help her heal. But all is not as it seems. She and her new friends are cut off from the outside world and she's plagued by a repeating symbol of interlocking circles that follows her everywhere. As Tabby begins to learn the truth about what the circles mean, and uncovers the terrible lies she's been told about her past, a final twist awaits her - a secret hidden in her DNA...

- Browns Books Synopsis

SHORTLIST 2022

Darnton, Tracy ISBN: 9781788952149
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Lambert, Richard ISBN: 9781911427162
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Lawrence, Patrice ISBN: 9781444954746
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Sharpe, Tess ISBN: 9781444960112
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Terry, Teri ISBN: 9781444957105
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Studies have found that reading for pleasure is important for children’s intellectual development. Children who read books often at age 10 and more than once a week at age 16 gain higher results in maths, vocabulary and spelling tests at age 16 than those who read less regularly.