THE votes have been cast and the winners of this year’s Bolton Children’s Fiction Award as chosen by young people have been announced at the annual ceremony.

And it was Tamsyn Murray with her book Instructions for a Second-Hand Heart won over secondary schoolchildren from across Bolton.

And for the first time the Younger Fiction Award was presented to an author, as chosen by primary school children, who were invited to get involved with the awards this year. They chose Lisa Thompson, author of Goldfish Boy.

The ceremony was held at Bolton School which co-ordinates the book prize — but children from schools across Bolton are invited to choose which authors are most deserving of the award.

This year’s shortlist for the main prize were Laurence Anholt, The Hypnotist, Theresa Breslin, Caged, Emma Carroll, Letters from the Lighthouse, Christopher Edge, The Jamie Drake Equation, Tamsyn Murray, Instructions for a Second-Hand Heart and Lisa Thompson, Goldfish Boy.

Six authors and more than seven hundred pupils enjoyed a morning of celebrating reading before the announcement of the 2018 Bolton Children’s Fiction Award winners.

The Bolton Children’s Fiction Award Ceremony was compered by Old Boy and crime fiction author Robert Parker. Robert gave a summary of his career so far. He also spoke about the importance of seeing the silver lining in everything and his attitude of using rejection and bad reviews to spur him on.

Tamsyn said: “At a time when we are often told reading is in decline, I can’t tell you how much pleasure it gave me and all the other authors to know that we were in a room full of children who were already readers, a lot of whom had read some or all of the phenomenal shortlisted books.

“It means ever such a lot to have won – thanks again for all you’ve done to make the award a success.”

A spokesman for the school said: “Twenty-three schools attended the 2018 Award Ceremony and morning of talks. This year for the first time primary schools were involved, reading three books selected from the shortlist as most appropriate for younger readers and voting for a Younger Fiction winner.

“The authors gave interesting and individual presentations. They talked about their work, with particular focus on the book that was shortlisted for this year’s award, but also discussed reading, their other books,

“The librarians are already considering books for the 2019 Bolton Children’s Fiction Award, and pupils were asked for their suggestions on the day.”