Young readers to vote for their favourite book

YOUNG readers are to have their own say in the country’s longest-running awards for children’s books this year.

A Children’s Choice award has been added to celebrate the 20th year of the Bisto Children’s Book of the Year Awards, for which a 10-book shortlist was announced yesterday.

Among the nominated titles are two Irish language books, three by authors writing for children or teenagers (Bob Burke, John Connolly and Kieran Mark Crowley), for the first time and three previous winners of the competition (Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick, Jane Mitchell and the late Siobhán Dowd, who passed away in 2007).