Bolton School is delighted to announce the shortlist for the 2025 Bolton Children’s Fiction Award.
The 2025 Longlist of six books was revealed at the end of the Summer term when the 2024 winner (‘When I see Blue’ by Lily Bailey) was announced. Bolton School students, staff and other external participants were invited to read the Longlist to help to select the Shortlist of three.
Library staff at Bolton School said: ‘We hope that this year’s Shortlist will stretch pupils’ reading experiences and introduce them to new authors and genres.’
Once again, there will be a Book Award Day celebration of the books and reading at Bolton School: this year’s event will take place on 3 April. Readers will then have their say by voting for their favourite book and the winning title will be announced at the end of the Summer term in an online event.
The three Shortlisted books are:
- ‘The Final Year’ by Matt Goodfellow
- ‘The Secrets of the Snakestone’ by Piu Das Gupta
- ‘My Brilliant plan to fix everything’ by Ben Davis
Library staff at Bolton School said: ‘While all quite distinct titles, they do have common themes running through them – determination, resilience and maintaining a sense of humour when life is challenging. We hope that everyone reading them will enjoy them as much as we have.’
Read more about the Shortlisted books:
‘The Final Year’ by Matt Goodfellow
This is the first time that a verse novel has been nominated but we feel that it is well-deserved. All of our Longlist readers agreed that it was a definite for the shortlist.
Ten-year-old Nate lives with his mum and two younger brothers, Jax aged eight and Dylan, who’s four and thinks he’s Spiderman. The brothers are a tight little unit and, as the eldest, Nate takes care of the younger two when Mum is out with Auntie San at bingo, enjoying a few ciders.
When his best friend PS is put in a different Year 6 class, Nate is gutted, especially when PS starts to hang out with Nate’s nemesis, school bully Turner. New teacher Mr Joshua notices that Nate loves reading and writing, so encourages him to use words to help process his emotions, giving him a special notebook so he can write down his thoughts and manage his anger. However, Nate’s world is turned upside-down when Dylan is rushed into hospital. How will he cope if his little brother doesn’t pull through?
Notes from the Library: This book is about the power of words to help us to understand ourselves and reach out to others. Everyone who read this book has commented upon what a powerful, gritty and moving book this is and we knew as soon as we read it that we wanted to share it with you.
‘The Secrets of the Snakestone’ by Piu Das Gupta
In this fast-paced adventure, Zélie, a maid in a rich household and Jules, a sewer cleaner, face a deadly race to solve a family mystery and a vicious crime that stretches from the jungles of Calcutta to the sewers of Paris.
Zélie is often accused of being a witch, but she doesn’t believe in magic until Jules climbs up from the reeking Parisian sewer and hands Zélie the golden locket he discovered there. The locket once held the magical Snakestone, and Zélie knows that if she can find the stone, she might also find her missing father.
Meanwhile a dangerous secret society are equally desperate to get their hands on the Snakestone and its powers. With their lives under threat, Zélie and Jules embark on a desperate hunt for the treasure, facing strange riddles, a mysterious circus, and the miles of murky tunnels that twist beneath the ancient city above…
Notes from the Library: Championing new authors has always been a key part of the Book Awards and we are delighted to be able to promote Piu DasGupta, a writer based in Paris of English and Indian heritage.
We love an adventure and what an amazing place to set a story! Catacombs, the ancient burial places under cities such as Paris are by their nature dark and creepy and we particularly enjoyed the sense of place in this gothic tale of dark magic.
This page-turner weaves in themes of colonialism, class, women, poverty, family friendship, a bit of humour, a very cute baby sloth and the message that we shouldn’t judge people on first impressions. Whilst it includes serious themes these always come second place to the pace and the great story –Piu said in an interview that her top priority was to write a book that could command the attention of the reader and feedback from Longlist readers was that they were certainly gripped.
Intriguingly some of the more flamboyant characters in this book are actually based upon real-life people.
‘My brilliant plan to fix everything’ by Ben Davis
In order to get his family back together, Alex comes up with a brilliant plan: if Dad finally writes the novel he's always talked about, he'll be happier again and his parents will fall back in love.
Dad just needs to get away from work for a while to do it.
Alex tricks his dad into thinking he's been selected for a creative sabbatical, and starts to do the postal deliveries himself. But it's harder than Alex had ever realised, and there are the bullies who throw his letters in the canal, an overly suspicious boss, and a lot of angry dogs to avoid!
He finds unexpected help in Willow, a girl on the canal who offers to share the work ... but has a dark secret that might derail everything.
As Alex's ruse starts to fall apart, he needs his dad more than ever. Meanwhile, his dad comes to understand that the thing he needs most isn't publishing a novel ... it's Alex.
Notes from the Library: This story covers some serious issue but its situational humour balances the tone and is what attracted our Longlist readers. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments as poor Alex gets into a real pickle and his lies become more and more complicated.
Readers will also discover the workings of our Great British postal system and come to appreciate how important posties are to their local community and how difficult it is to write a book!
