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East Sussex Children's Book Award

Book Award 2023

Competitions

Our competitions are here! This year you can enter via your school or in your local library. Winners will be picked by the Librarian team and announced at our final event in June.

All competitions close on 10 May 2024.

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Tọlá Okogwu "Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun"

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Onyeka and the academy of the sun by Tọlá Okogwu

Black Panther meets Percy Jackson in this action-packed and empowering middle-grade superhero series about a British-Nigerian girl who learns that her Afro hair has psychokinetic powers.

I close my eyes, trying to push the power bubbling in me back down... Hairbands snap as my hair shoots out like superfine arrows, tearing through everything in its path.

Onyeka has a lot of hair - the kind that makes strangers stop in the street. She's always felt insecure about her vibrant curls, until she makes an important discovery: she can control her hair with her mind!

Her mother quickly whisks her off to the Academy of the Sun, a school in Nigeria where Solari - children with superpowers - are trained. But Onyeka and her new friends at the Academy soon have to put their powers to the test as they find themselves embroiled in a momentous battle between truth and lies...

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"Stink! worst fairy ever" by Jenny McLachlan

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Stink! worst fairy ever by Jenny McLachlan
We all know fairies. They're sweet and sparkly and lovely. Right? WRONG!! Meet Stink. Stink is the rudest, naughtiest fairy there's ever been. Instead of sparkles, Stink makes mess. Instead of being kind, Stink plays pranks. She also eats woodlice and rides on rats. From the moment Stink flies out of the fairy door and attaches herself to his hair, Danny knows that Stink is trouble. She needs his help to do a good deed and win her silver wings - and Danny will do anything to get Stink to go back to fairyland. But can Stink ever be good?

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"All the way down" by Stewart Foster

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All the way down by Stewart Foster

When three eleven-year-old 'problem children' are thrown together at summer camp, they're challenged to build a place to live together for the next week. But after a trip to a disused tin-mine goes awry, Milo and his new friends, Oscar and Effie, soon find themselves split off from the group and trapped underground. Can they work through their individual issues and come together as a team to find their way to freedom?

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David Owen "Alex Neptune, Dragon Thief"

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Alex Neptune, dragon thief by David Owen

Meet Alex Neptune, the boy with the power of the ocean in his hands - a brand-new hero for fans of Percy Jackson and Dragon Realm!


For as long as Alex Neptune can remember, the ocean has been trying to kill him. So he's not too happy when a bunch of sea creatures drag him to the abandoned aquarium on the hill, where an imprisoned water dragon needs his help. But how can he say no to a magical myth?

Recruiting his tech-genius best friend Zoey, legend-lover Anil, a sharp-shooting octopus, four acrobatic otters and a thieving seagull, Alex plots a heist to break the dragon out. And suddenly discovers the power of the ocean at his fingertips...

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"My friend the octopus" by Lindsay Galvin

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My friend the octopus by Lindsay Galvin

England, 1893, and aquarium fever is at its height.

Twelve-year-old Vinnie Fyfe works in the tea-shop at Brighton aquarium, and waits for her milliner mother to return from Paris.

The arrival of a giant octopus changes her life for ever. Discovering a talent for art, Vinnie begins to draw the extraordinary beast.

She soon realises she can communicate with the octopus through colour and – as a gripping mystery begins to unfold – discovers what true courage really means ...

 

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"The Elemental Detectives" by Patrice Lawrence

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The Elemental Detectives by Patrice Lawrence

Step into a London lit up by the Elemental spirits: the fiery Dragons, the airy Fumis, the watery Chads and the earthbound Magogs. But humans have been causing chaos for centuries, trampling through the landscape trailing noise, mess and pollution. What if the Elements could slow down this new world - or stop it all together? The revenge-fuelled Shepherdess, who moves between the everyday and the supernatural London worlds, is the perfect weapon. She brings a sleeping sickness down on the city with the destruction of society in her sights.

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How It Works

The ESCBA is enjoyed by children aged 8 – 11 years, but everyone - teachers, parents, grandparents, carers and book lovers can take part!

Encourage your school to take part, borrow the books from the library and enter the competitions. 

In May 2024 you can vote for the winning book!

Schools sign up here

We are delighted to be able to offer ESCBA free of charge to schools in 2023/24!
So that we can keep ESCBA free of charge this year, we are asking schools to buy their own set of the shortlisted books.  We will give you more information about how you can do this when you register to take part.
Register here by 15 December 2023

Register here

Families sign up here

Get an Information Pack with advice on how to run a Reading Group and Book Marks!
You can read along by borrowing a book from the library or eLibrary. Take part in our competitions!
Register here by 15 December 2023

Register here

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