2022 BCFA Winner Announced

The winner of the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award (BCFA) 2022 was announced to a hall filled with excited pupils just before the summer holidays. Boys and girls from across Bolton visited Bolton School to take part in the Award Ceremony after casting their votes for the winning book.

Authors and books shortlisted for 2022 were: Stewart Foster (The Perfect Parent Project), Ele Fountain (Lost), Elle McNicoll (A Kind of Spark), Lesley Parr (The Valley of Lost Secrets), Helen Rutter (The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh) and Joe Wilson (The Island That Didn’t Exist).

This year, BCFA was partially virtual: Bolton School’s Librarians, who organise the Awards, arranged a series of Zoom talks with the six shortlisted authors. Bolton School Book Club members attended live from the Library and the recordings were shared with everyone involved in BCFA 2022. This followed on from the success of using technology to connect authors and readers during the pandemic, when in-person visits were not possible, and allowed every single person involved in the Awards to hear from all six authors about their books.

On the day of the Award Ceremony, there was a buzzing atmosphere in the Great Hall at Bolton School as pupils congregated to hear the announcement of the winner: Helen Rutter with her book ‘The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh’.

Helen was delighted to accept the Bolton Children’s Fiction Award for 2022 in person. She addressed the audience, thanking them for their votes and talking more about her journey to becoming an author and how the story of Billy Plimpton, ‘The Boy Who Made Everyone Laugh’, came about. She also got the audience involved in collectively creating an outline for their very own story during the event! This memorable and fun activity encouraged everyone to get involved and start thinking creatively.

Earlier in the day, Helen spent an enjoyable morning with members of the Boys’ and Girls’ Division Book Clubs talking about her writing and books more generally.

Children across Bolton can now look forward to the Bolton Children’s Fiction award 2023. The new shortlist will be announced by Bolton School’s Librarians very soon!