Getting, and keeping,
our young people reading

We're back!

The pandemic might have knocked our bookish celebrations off track for the last few years but our shortlists are as strong as ever and the reading continues! 

Keep checking back here for news of our digital events and the announcement of our winners - and follow us on twitter @NEBookAwards 

Schools from all over the North East region take part in our awards each year from Berwick to Darlington and everywhere in between. 

In this exciting new post-pandemic world, where everything happens online,  we are keen to involve schools in the rest of the country in the reading and voting too.

To find out how you can get involved just drop us an email. 
Schools and book groups are welcome to sign up to either or both awards at any time in the year.

The NE Teen Book Award (NETBA)  was set up in 1999 due to popular demand; schools wanted a similar programme to the prestigious Carnegie Greenaway Book Awards to engage and challenge readers but one which was closer to home, one where our young people could make their own voices heard while discovering exciting new authors and maybe meet those authors for themselves.

The NE Book Award( NEBA)  was set up in 2005 due to popular demand; those schools who had taken part in the North East Teenage Book Award wanted a similar scheme to enthuse their younger readers in Year 7 and 8 about new books and exciting new authors too.

The aim of our younger and YA awards remains the same; we want to make our young people more aware of the quality and variety of exciting writing out there, to celebrate and support both established and up and coming authors and to create opportunities for the authors to meet their avid readers. We remain amazed at how many schools want to take part and now around 30 schools sign up every year from across the whole North East region.

The NE Book Awards  cater for the reading needs of OUR young people, allowing them to voice their opinions about the books and the reading which matters to them. Their vote decides the winner each year, their opinions are sought when drawing up the long and shortlists and they are critical, highly perceptive and insightful readers.  Because our awards are  all about reading it’s also the only award in the world (that we know of) where the student judges, not the winning authors, get the prizes.