We want to take the Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize across the UK, with events based on the shortlisted books at leading science centres.
The aim is to expand the reach of the prize by bringing it to a new audience, showing under 14s that science books are fun to read, and hopefully teach some science along the way.
The prize is open to books in which science is a substantial aspect of the book’s content, narrative or theme and which are written for young people aged up to 14. An adult judging panel selects a shortlist of six books. The winner is selected by judging panels of young people from across the UK. The Prize has attracted around 180 applications for judging panels, with over 100 taking part in selecting the winning book. To find out more about the Prize, please visit royalsociety.org/awards/young-people.
We are looking for enthusiastic science centres outside of London to hold events based on the science in the books shortlisted for the prize.
We are committed to making these events as successful as possible: contributing up to £500 to help with marketing, space, staff time etc, providing access to authors and promoting the events to our audiences and on our website.
As a result of the science focus of the Prize, the events need to reference back to the science within the book you wish to base your event on. The event can be as interactive and creative as you like, anything from an author event to an activity workshop inspired by the books (for example our Edinburgh International Book Festival event).
The six shortlisted books in 2016 are:
The Royal Society is committed to making these events as successful as possible, so has resources to offer the successful centres the following to help you run the events:
Please submit:
Please let us know by Friday 9 December 2016 if you are interested in running a Royal Society Young People’s Book Prize event by returning the information above to Emma Slater sciencebooks@royalsociety.org. Once chosen, at least five successful centres will be contacted to confirm that they have been selected and to start the event planning process.
We would be more than happy to chat through any questions you may have, please do not hesitate to get in touch with Emma Slater at sciencebooks@royalsociety.org or on 0207 451 2242.