Young Teen Fiction Book Award

What is Young Teen Fiction (YTF)?

Staffordshire's Young Teen Fiction Book Award is aimed at KS3 pupils, age 11-14, who live or go to school in Staffordshire, or who use Staffordshire Library Services. It is an opportunity for young people to read an assortment of fiction and nominate titles they have enjoyed.

Are you a member of staff from a Staffordshire school? Find out how you can support the YTF Award.

Nominations and votes are only accepted from young people - this award belongs to them! Please encourage them to take part. 

YTF 2020 and Coronavirus

In light of the Coronavirus pandemic we have made the difficult decision to cancel this year’s Young Teen Fiction Award.

Social distancing rules would have made it impossible for us to host the annual celebration event with our friends at RAF Museum, Cosford and the lockdown has made it difficult for pupils to access the nominated titles.

We would like to thank all the wonderful authors who are this year’s shortlist.

• Fing by David Walliams 
• Beast of Buckingham Palace by David Walliams
• Tom Gates – Spectacular School Trip (Really) by Liz Pichon
• The Fire Maker by Guy Jones
• D-Day Dog by Tom Palmer
• How To Rob A Bank by Tom Mitchell

Finally, we would like to thank Staffordshire’s schools and pupils for taking part in YTF. We hope YTF 2021 will be bigger and better than before! Look out for information about how schools and pupils can get involved in the Autumn.

Explore YTF 2020’s nominated authors

Want to discover a little more about this year’s nominated authors? We have collated some information and links for you to explore the authors and nominated titles further.

The Fire Maker by Guy Jones

• Find out more about Guy Jones at his page, hosted by Chicken House Books
• The Fire Maker is available to borrow/reserve via Borrowbox – visit our eLibrary for more information.
• Read this fascinating Q and A with Guy Jones

Tom Gates Spectacular School Trip (really) by Liz Pichon

• Visit Liz Pichon’s website
• Meet Liz Pichon
• Tom Gates Fun Stuff
• Watch this fantastic video interview by Michael Rosen with Liz Pichon - How to Write Tom Gates
• Watch a short video of Liz Pichon reading a Tome Gates story
• Enjoy a short clip of Liz Pichon doodling Tom Gates

How To Rob A Bank by Tom Mitchell

• How to Rob a Bank is available to borrow/reserve via Borrowbox – visit our eLibrary for more information.
• Watch Tom Mitchell read an excerpt from How to Rob a Bank

• Watch a Tom Mitchell video - How to write great characters
• Tom Mitchell tells us about his new book, That Time I Got Kidnapped

D-Day Dog by Tom Palmer

• Visit Tom Palmer’s website
• Watch the special video that Tom Palmer has created for us about the YTF Celebration 2020

Fing and The Beast of Buckingham Palace by David Walliams

• The Beast of Buckingham Palaceis available to borrow/reserve via Borrowbox – visit our eLibrary for more information.
• Visit David Walliams’ website for more information and a short video about The Beast of Buckingham Palace
• Visit David Walliams’ website for more information and a short video about Fing

Mission YTF is back!

Our summer reading initiative for 11-14s, Mission YTF, is also changing this year and going virtual! Here’s how to take part:

• Between 7 July and 19 October, pick one of the challenges below to complete about any fiction book you have enjoyed reading this year. It doesn’t matter when it was published or if it was eligible for YTF, it might be something you have read before or a new book you have discovered. This includes audio books, comics and anything you have read in a digital format such as e-books, e-audiobooks or e-comics.
• Post a photo of your completed challenge on social media:
  • Instagram, don't forget to tag us.
  • Facebook, our page is Staffordshire Libraries.
  • Twitter, our account is @StaffsLibraries - don’t forget to #MissionYTF so that we pick up on your entry.
• On 23 October we will announce the four lucky winners who will receive one of our fabulous donated prizes:
  • a Day Pass for two people to Alton Towers to be used on Saturday 7 November
  • a £25 Amazon voucher
  • a £20 Leisure Voucher which can be used in dozens of places including Pizza Hut, TGI Fridays, Waterstones, Cineworld and HMV
  • a £10 National Book Token which can be used online or in hundreds of bookshops.
• Throughout November, all the entries to the competition will be showcased in an online gallery

The Challenges:

• re-design a book jacket
• bake a cake or create a piece of art to represent your favourite character from the book
• write a haiku about how the book makes you feel (a haiku is a poem which has 3 lines (1st line has 5 syllables, 2nd line has 7 syllables, 3rd line has 5 syllables)
• make a 60 second video to encourage people to read the book you have enjoyed

Good luck!