Young Journalism Prize Winner Announced!

While we were out at Whalley Range High School with author LA Weatherly on World Book Day, we took the opportunity to present a special prize.

Last year, children from all over the North West were invited to write about their favourite books, poems and authors and to submit their work to the Manchester Children's Book Festival Reading and Writing Relay.

Hundreds of fantastic articles came flooding in, with lots of brilliant writers telling us all about their favourite stories and poems and what they love most about the festival. The best of these were published on our blog.

The MCBF team had a very tough job deciding which articles they liked best but we are very pleased to announce the title of 2015 MCBF Young Journalist of the Year has been awarded to… Zainab Imran!

Zainab, who goes to Whalley Range High School in Manchester, really impressed the MCBF team with her enthusiasm, fantastic articles about the festival and her amazing interview with Time Riders author, Alex Scarrow.

Lee Weatherly presented Zainab with £100 of Amazon vouchers. Fellow Whalley Range pupils also attended MCBF events and wrote for the blog. Taha Haque, Areeba Ahmed and Atiya Mahboob were each presented with £20 vouchers by Lee for their joint article about the MCBF Multi-Cultural Day.

Other runners-up for the MCBF Young Journalist of the year and whose work was also published on the blog were:

Joss Abbs-Brown, aged 11

Josh wrote a fantastic review of the festival that he and his family visit every year and also wowed the judges with the wonderful poem he wrote about his experiences called ‘A Writer’s World’.

Jonathan Clarke, aged 11

Jonathan wrote about his love of reading and how much he enjoys visiting his local library.

Thomas Clarke, aged 8

Thomas also wrote some fantastic book reviews for our blog including one of JRR Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

All runners-up have received £25 Amazon vouchers.

The work of these fantastic young writers can be seen on the MCBF blog. If you'd like to see your writing published on the MCBF blog send your reviews, opinion pieces or creative work to mcbf@mmu.ac.uk

If you fancy attending any MCBF events, with a view to blogging or vlogging about it, we're very happy to arrange tickets. Talk to your teacher, or email the team.

Check out the Manchester Children's Book Festival 2016 programme for upcoming events. You can watch Zainab interviewing Alex Scarrow - a masterclass in interviewing technique below: