We had such an amazing range of submissions this year…it was a privilege to read them all. I’m so excited about our final longlist though, and I can’t wait to share them with my students… (How on earth will we choose just four for the shortlist?)

Day 4, 11+ Fiction: 'Phoenix Brothers' by Sita Brahmachari. Two boys trying to settle into a new life - a story of friendship, shared history and challenging choices. @oxfordeducation.bsky.social #Spark12BooksOfChristmas 🎄🎁 📚

Day 1: Our first book in the 11+ Fiction category is 'I Dare You' by Tamsin Winter - Willow and Alma will do anything to go viral, but as their TikTok likes soar, their dares become increasingly dangerous. (Usborne) 🎄🎁📚 #Spark12BooksofChristmas

It's the 1st of December and that means it's time for the Spark! 12 Books of Christmas - we will be announcing our longlists over the next 12 working days, starting today... 🎄🎁📚 #Spark12BooksOfChristmas

Our 11+ Panel members are excited by the fantastic range of books we've been sent this year for the teen category - longlisting is going to be a difficult job! @rebeccarouillard.bsky.social

Book review: 'The Scream of the Whistle' by Emily Randall-Jones - a spooky one for autumn! 🎃🚂👻 @chickenhousebooks.bsky.social swimminginbooks.blog/2025/08/27/t...

Happy Caturday from Majestic Merlin & Maeby the Menace…

Just finished this wonderfully warm, inclusive and captivating story of friendship and reconciliation, exploring historical events not often covered in British children’s fiction - highly recommended! @janeenhayat.bsky.social @guppybooks.bsky.social

Today we welcomed our new Year 7 pupils to school for Transition Day and transported the library to the Catacombs of Paris to introduce our Summer Reading Challenge... @piudg.bsky.social @nosycrow.bsky.social @thekingstonacademy.org

TKA Library played host to the @sparkbookaward.bsky.social Final Award Ceremony yesterday, which was broadcast live on YouTube to 170 schools. Some of our pupils attended as the live studio audience and supplied some excellent drum rolls and applause! @thekingstonacademy.org

It is such a huge privilege to chair the shortlisting panel for the teen category of the @sparkbookaward.bsky.social. I loved all of the books in our shortlist but so pleased that the pupils voted for Nate Lessore & his important message of kindness & combating toxic masculinity. 🙌👏🏆

The Spark team are still recovering from the excitement of yesterday...here are some behind-the-scenes shots of our ceremony. (Yes, we ate the cupcakes as soon as the ceremony was finished!)

Here they are in all their glory! Congratulations to all the 2025 Spark! Book Award Winners and a huge thank you to all the children and young people who read the books, entered the competitions, came to the author visits and voted for our winners! ✨📚🏆

Year 7 & 8 enjoyed a brilliant author visit from @ravenaguron.bsky.social on Monday. She spoke about her journey to becoming a writer via law school, her obsession with Agatha Christie, and she gave us some practical insight into the publishing industry. Thanks for a fascinating talk!

Book Review: Tidemagic: Ista Flit and the Impossible Key by @clareharlow.bsky.social Just as uncanny, atmospheric & captivating as the first one. Bravo! 🙌 swimminginbooks.blog/2025/06/20/t...

And ‘Shongololo’ - a familiar sight to any South Africans out there! dirigibleballoon.org/poem/Shongol...

Thanks to @northernjim.bsky.social at The Dirigible Balloon for publishing two of my children’s poems: ‘My Velociraptor Thinks She’s a Cat’… 🎈 dirigibleballoon.org/poem/My-Velo...

Book Review: ‘Circle of Liars’ by Kate Francis. And Then There Were None meets Five Survive…I really enjoyed this pacy thriller! swimminginbooks.blog/2025/06/13/c...

You've read the books. You've spoken to the authors. You've responded with incredible artwork, creative writing & multimedia projects. Now it's time to vote for the winners of the Spark! School Book Awards 2025! Find voting details on your latest email, deadline - 20 June.📚🏆✨

Fern Hill Book of the Week: 'Why Did My Brain Make Me Say It?' by @bardymum.bsky.social. Brains are weird! But this poetry collection also demonstrates that brains are amazing in the way they can experiment with language. A playful, profound and authentic collection of poems - perfect for primary!

Merlin proves even less cooperative on camera than Magnus…😂

Happy Pride Month! Here are just a few of the fantastic LGBTQ+ books available in our library… 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🌈 @thekingstonacademy.org

It was so lovely to meet @clairelinney.bsky.social today, thanks for a brilliant talk!

Book review: 'I Dare You' by @tamsinwinterauthor.bsky.social. A thought-provoking and frighteningly plausible read from the Queen of teen fiction. swimminginbooks.blog/2025/05/07/i...

The final @sparkbookaward.bsky.social event took place last week with Ashley Hickson-Lovence, author of the powerful verse novel 'Wild East'. Ashley spoke about how the book was based on his own experience & how we can use our lives to inspire our writing. Thank you for a fantastic event, Ashley!

Book Review: 'A Forgery of Fate' by Elizabeth Lim @hodderscape.bsky.social A charming, lyrical and romantic story, filled with strange creatures, vibrant landscapes and captivating characters... swimminginbooks.blog/2025/05/05/a...

Book Review: 'Mission: Manta Ray' by Philip Kavvadias @chickenhousebooks.bsky.social Another non-stop, madcap adventure featuring intrepid children, thrilling action, wildly imaginative technology, and witty banter... swimminginbooks.blog/2025/05/05/m...

Book review: 'The Notorious Virtues' by Alwyn Hamilton. A dazzlingly original fantasy thriller - loved it! swimminginbooks.blog/2025/05/05/t...

Book Review: 'The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy' by Brigitte Knightley (Dearly Beloathed #1) Loved this witty, enemies-to-lovers, fantasy romp... swimminginbooks.blog/2025/05/05/t...

Happy #Caturday! Merlin says hello. 💙

You're finally ready for this:

Exciting news: our main Pupil Competition is now open! We're looking for your most inspired and creative response to one of our shortlisted books, in any format you like. Deadline: 2 June 2025. Full details on our website: www.sparkbookawards.co.uk/schools/pupi...

Teacher & Librarians! We're giving away limited mystery review sets of our soon to publish Choose Your Own Adventure series: one set could be yours... Comment below & share this post to be in with the chance! Choose Your Own Adventure is the bestselling gamebook series of all time.

On Monday our KS3 Book Club, with some other schools, heard Denise Brown talk about her thrilling murder mystery 'It All Started with a Lie' - shortlisted for the @sparkbookaward.bsky.social. We also got to ask her some questions about her writing process - thanks Denise!

Some of our Fern Hill Year 4&5 pupils had a brilliant time yesterday listening to Rachel Chivers Khoo talk about her @sparkbookaward.bsky.social shortlisted book, 'The Magician Next Door'. (Appropriately, we went next door to TKA Library for the event.) Thanks Rachel for answering our questions! 🧙‍♂️🪄🏘️

TKA KS3 Book Club hosted the first @sparkbookaward.bsky.social online author visit on Monday with Radhika Sanghani, the author of 'Here to Slay'. Radhika told us about her research, her inspiration and then read a short extract. We also had the opportunity to ask the author some questions!

Fern Hill Year 3 Beech Class had a fantastic time listening to @kieranlarwood.bsky.social talk about his @sparkbookaward.bsky.social shortlisted book 'Dungeon Runners' on Tuesday. And we even got to ask the author some questions. We can't wait to read Dungeon Runners Level 2!

We're celebrating #WorldBookDay2025 today by sharing book extracts and spreading the joy of reading in every lesson throughout the day! We also had a record-breaking response to our costume competition from both pupils and staff... @thekingstonacademy.org

We started our #worldbookday2025 celebrations early at Fern Hill with a visit from Andy Jones yesterday. Year 3 & 4 got some creative writing tips from 'Unleash Your Creative Monster', then KS2 heard all about time travelling & zombies. Thanks for an inspiring visit Andy! 🤳🧟📚

Our next author spotlight features Radhika Sanghani on her funny, action packed, demon-slaying adventure 'Here to Slay' - shortlisted in the 11+ Category. youtu.be/wkrIntVStp0?...

To #MGLit authors and publishers--please read our argument for a new publishing category called Young Teen Lit, targeted at ages 12-15. #itstimeforyoungteenlit #youngteenlit #tlsky #skybrarians #Edusky #kidlit

Book review: ‘Our Infinite Fates’ by Laura Steven: adored this one - an achingly romantic story with a compelling mystery at its heart…and that gorgeous cover design! 😍 swimminginbooks.blog/2025/02/01/o...

Farrah Riaz, author of 'The Twirly Wiggly Dance' visited Fern Hill on Tuesday. She read her charming picture book, we did a true & false quiz, then we did some twirly wiggly dances of our own! Thanks @farrahriaz.bsky.social - we had a fantastic twirly wiggly time! 💃🕺🪩 @oxfordchildrens.bsky.social

In the library today, a Year 3 pupil called Oscar asked me if I had any books about lions…he was thrilled! @sparkbookaward.bsky.social

I had a fab time meeting all your enthusiastic and attentive pupils. Some great questions. And getting mobbed for signed books afterwards... wow!

Spotted on my way home tonight… 😂

I loved visiting @thekingstonacademy.org this week! 🐺😍

Schools! Now you've seen our fabulous shortlists, it's your last chance to sign up for this year's awards. The deadline is 5pm tomorrow, Friday 17 January. Don't miss out - sign up now! #Spark2025Shortlist 📚❤️✨ sparkbookawards.co.uk/schools/school-sign-up

Congratulations to all of our 11+ shortlisted authors! #Spark2025Shortlist

We're thrilled to announce that the following brilliant books have been shortlisted in our 11+ Category: #Spark2025Shortlist @rebeccarouillard.bsky.social