Walker to fund £25k WoBoD prize

The 2017 World Book Day Award (WoBoD), launched by author James Patterson in 2015, will be funded by publisher Walker Books, which will provide £25,000 of books for the winning schools.

For next year’s prize, primary and secondary schools are being asked to create a display, inspired by the Walker title A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston, that answers the question: “Which stories have made the pupils and teachers of your school children of books?”

The winning school will receive £5,000 of Walker titles, whilst three second-prize winners will be given £3,000 of books. A further 10 schools will be awarded £1,000 of books each.

The entries will be judged by Jeffers and Winston, along with World Book Day director Kirsten Grant.

Grant said: “WoBoD is one of my favourite strands of World Book Day activity as it’s so inspiring to see the wealth of creativity in children all over the in the UK and Ireland. The quality of the entries over the past two years has been incredible - there have been some real spine-tingling moments and the children’s passion is very moving. School libraries play a vital role in promoting reading for pleasure, so WoBoD is a brilliant opportunity to give the libraries of some lucky schools a refresh.”

The deadline for entries is 9th December. The winners will be announced on World Book Day next year (2nd March).

Next year World Book Day will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a selection of £1 authors that include David Walliams, Enid Blyton and Jacqueline Wilson.

However, the choice of authors attracted criticism from writer and campaigner Nikesh Shukla, who said the list was not diverse.