The North East Teenage Book Awards (NETBA) takes place on  11th March. It’s an annual event where children in Year 7 and above are encouraged to read five books from a long list of recent books.

Once each student involved in NETBA has read the five books, they will vote on whose book they enjoyed most. The results are kept a secret until the night it takes place at the Centre for Life in Newcastle upon Tyne.

This year NETBA are celebrating its 20th year running. The organization running the event say, “We pride ourselves on talent spotting in the NE and try hard to uncover new authors and powerful, life-changing stories.”

We interviewed Mrs Inverarity, Chantry and Newminster Middle School’s Librarian:

How long have you been attending the North East Teenage Book Awards?

I’ve been doing the awards since 2007 – quite a while back.

How do you feel the students can benefit from the awards?

The awards exposes students to a whole variety of genres and styles, whilst writing their own reviews they must consider their responses and listen to others. They have to really think – you won’t enjoy every book, but you will be taken out of your ‘comfort zone’, which will broaden your horizons and give you a good early start to high school examinations. In addition to this, they have to reflect on some of the powerful issues raised in the books, which all has a positive impact.

Finally, do you feel like the shortlist of books this year has a good variety of material for our teenage readers?

There was a good variety of material. Did I like all the books, no.

We also interviewed Mrs Dunphy, SENCO at Chantry Middle School who is participating on 11th March:

How long have you attended the awards?

This is my first year taking part – but I have attended (the sister award), NEBA, 2 previous times.

As an English teacher yourself, do you see any benefit for students taking part?

Yes, I do. There is such a wide range of books – books that students would not usually read, and is really giving them a broad range of opportunities.

Do you feel like NETBA is an important event for students?

Of course it is. From everything such as book club, where students can informally discuss with their peers their opinion – to stretching their minds on reviews.

To finish off, what do you enjoy most about these types of events?

The enthusiasm our students show for reading! They are dedicated and pleased to be able to meet the authors of some of their favorite books.

The books in the shortlist are:

 

By Amy and Ethan, Year 7