Young Teen Fiction Book Award

What is YTF?

Staffordshire Young Teen Fiction Award (YTF) is an annual countywide initiative where young people aged 11-14 who live, go to school in Staffordshire, or who use a Staffordshire Library are encouraged to read a range of fiction and nominate eligible titles for the shortlist and vote for the winner.

Eligible titles

• Should be a fiction novel written for young people 11-14 years
• Must be written in the English language 
• Should have its first publication in the UK during the previous calendar year (for 2022, these are novels published between 1st January and 31st December 2021)

It is only the young people who are eligible to vote.

This is a really important element of YTF as it ensures that the young people we engage can be confident that the whole process values and reflects their reading choices.

YTF 2022 – going ‘hybrid’

Following the success of YTF Online in 2021, we are really pleased to be able to tell you that we will have a ‘hybrid’ (physical and online offer) for the Staffordshire Young Teen Fiction Award 2022.

It has been a couple of years now since we have been able to do any physical engagement with schools around YTF so we are really pleased that we can restart this again whilst also continuing to offer you great online reader development content for you to share with your students.  

YTF is a fantastic way to inspire your students to widen their reading for pleasure choices and to have their say about what titles they enjoyed the most.

We will be sharing lots more information with you by email over the coming months, including lots of ideas for getting involved so please look out for those.

If you are not on our mailing list and would like to be, or if you have any queries about YTF 2022, please email liz.gardner@staffordshire.gov.uk

If you would like to book any YTF reader development sessions, please contact your local library to discuss availability.

Dates for your diary!

1 November 2021 – nomination phase opens and online nomination form goes live

28 February 2022 at 5pm – nomination phase closes. Votes are counted and the most nominated 6 eligible titles form the shortlist.

7 March 2022 – YTF 2022 shortlist announced and shortlist online voting form goes live

April 2022 – schools will be invited to express an interest in attending Celebration Day at RAF Museum, Cosford on Tuesday 5 July 2022

24 June 2022 at 5pm – shortlist voting closes. Votes are counted.

5 July 2022 - YTF Celebration Day will take place at RAF Museum, Cosford where the winner of YTF 2022 will be announced.

YTF 2022 Shortlist

The following titles have been shortlisted for the YTF Award 2022: 

• Rules For Vampires by Alex Foulkes
• When the Sky Falls by Phil Earle
• Arctic Star by Tom Palmer
• All Our Hidden Gifts by Caroline O’Donoghue
• Between the Sea and the Sky by Nicola Penfold
• The Broken Raven by Joseph Elliott

Vote for your favourite