Congratulations to the wonderful Alex Scarrow, and commiserations to the amazing and lovely Gillian Cross, Cathy MacPhail and Keren David.
The awards took place at Our Lady’s High School, Motherwell, on Friday 28th October. Full details will follow soon.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,100 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.
Happy New Year from everyone at Catalyst!
Report from Damon, Caldervale High School
That’s it! Another year past for the Catalyst team. Another longlist shortlisted – another author crowned winner. And one can only look back at what a great year it was.
Going into its eighth year, the Catalyst team, once again, did a fantastic job. The longlist had been selected fairly and promptly, with only a minor disagreement (yes, that may have been me!) but the decision had been made – the longlist had been chosen. Let the games commence; a new year, another new mountain of books to overcome.
The longlist’s diversity appealed to even the most reluctant of readers. From a lost prehistoric world in the Brazilian jungle to the elegance and deprivation of Victorian London; from stopping people interfering with history and maintaining law to changing history altogether and freeing humanity from rules.
I only managed to read thirteen of the books this year – I blame the teachers for all this homework. In my opinion, they were all good . . . in their own way. I preferred some books over others, but several that I didn’t enjoy as much, I am pleased to see had positive reviews on the blog – simply proving my statement above.
Throughout the year, Mrs MacDonald encouraged us all to get through the longlist. She set up a Speed Reading competition to see who out of the group could read and review on the blog, as many of the books as possible.
So as the end of term approached, we were ready to vote for our favourites to go on the shortlist. What none of us disagreed on was TimeRiders. That was a definite shortlist contender. We also voted for Out of Shadows and Unhooking the Moon. And that was it. We’d done all we could. Now it was just up to luck.
Fortunately four great authors were chosen. I first found out the shortlist in the public library over summer, printed on a bookmark. I wasted no time in checking out the only book I hadn’t read yet, my new bookmark accompanying me home too. As predicted, I enjoyed it, along with the other three. However, my favourite remained TimeRiders.
When school resumed, our Catalyst group – and Mrs MacDonald – didn’t hesitate in debating and reading the shortlisted novels. Voting shortly followed, and I am proud to admit that – if you haven’t guessed already – that I voted Alex Scarrow.
And after no time, it was over; October was upon us. The votes had been – for lack of a less clichéd phrase – counted and verified. We had chosen the winner. The Awards Ceremony was held in Our Lady’s High School in Motherwell (another thank you goes to Mrs Sinclair for hosting us). Overall, the morning was great, with a chance to hear some short biographies of the authors, extracts from their books and the authors’ own stories about how their respective novels came to be the fantastic stories we came to shortlist. The four authors were also kind enough to hold a signing session after the result had been announced.
My school, Caldervale High School, were delighted to discover that we would be introducing Alex Scarrow at the Awards and even more delighted to discover we would be playing host to him the day before. First impressions of Alex: certainly dramatic. It was clear to see he had the mind of a writer; it was clear to see he didn’t lack imagination (which benefits the rest of us, because then we get to indulge in his captivating storylines). It was also clear to see his enthusiasm, especially when he bounced up on the furniture.
The following day at the Awards Ceremony, myself and fellow pupil Claire conquered our – I thought, clearly apparent – nerves. Hearing the announcement that Alex had won was great news; congratulations to him, but commiserations to the other authors, Cathy MacPhail, Gillian Cross and Keren David. All the books were great!
So to conclude as I began, this year has been a fantastic one, once again, for the Catalyst team. I’m sure I can speak for all the participating pupils when I wish them all a big thank you for what they do each year for us – without them, none of this would be possible. I also wish to thank the four authors above for donating their time to visit our schools and attend the Awards. I just hope that Catalyst continues and the succeeding years are as successful as this one has been.
Damon, Caldervale High School
Report from Mrs Connor, LRC Manager, Chryston High School
Our Lady’s High School in Motherwell hosted the 8th North Lanarkshire Catalyst Awards, presented to the best teenage book of the year. Hundreds of 3rd and 4th year pupils and four excited but nervous authors were present to see Alex Scarrow awarded Catalyst winner of 2011for his book ‘Time Riders’.
A lovely award to win – the RIGHT kind of award to win, because it’s the students that vote. I had a fantastic and memorable day.
Alex Scarrow
Young people from all 24 secondary schools and public libraries in North Lanarkshire were invited to take part in voting for the overall winner from an exciting shortlist of four great books.
The response to the voting this year was overwhelming, helping to keep the Catalyst Awards driven by the people that matter – the readers. Young people were involved in every aspect of the Catalyst Awards, from helping to choose the shortlist, posting reviews on the Catalyst blog and voting for the winner.
This year in conjunction with the Catalyst blog a competition was held to see which school could write the most reviews and which pupil could write the best review.
The winners were:
And their prize is an author visit of their choice for both schools.
The Catalyst Awards ceremony was hosted by pupils from schools across North Lanarkshire. Each author was introduced by different pupils and the pupils asked lots of interesting questions to the authors during the Q&A section of the ceremony.
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A special mention has to go to the pupils from Our Lady’s High School who were involved in lots of different aspects of the ceremony. The Duke of Edinburgh pupils produced the programmes and helped set up the event and the pupils from Intermediate II Hospitality provided lunch for the authors and special guests. The Photography Club assisted with taking pictures and the Writers Club were on hand to entertain the authors during the day.
The Catalyst committee would like to express a huge thank you to everyone who was involved in making this year’s awards such a success. A special thank you goes to everyone at Our Lady’s High School Motherwell for hosting the awards.
