Southern River College librarian Erin Smith is encouraging students to participate in the West Australian Young Readers’ Book Award.
The award was organised on a state-wide basis for young readers who can nominate and vote for books they like.
There were three categories – older readers, younger readers and picture books and shortlisted books must have been published in the last five years.
Ms Smith said most award-winning books for young people were chosen by adults but the award itself was different with the shortlisted and winning titles chosen by young people themselves.
She also said she saw it as a way to further encourage reading at the college.
“A lot of book awards judge on literary merit which is great,” she said.
“However getting kids to read is all about finding stories that interest them.
“WAYBRA is about what the kids of WA want to read.”
Ms Smith also saw the awards as ensuring the library collection was modern and accessible to the students.
“We’ve had some lovely responses from our students,” she said.
“We have an enthusiastic group of readers at Southern River College who aren’t afraid to tell us what they really think about a book so when they come to us and say this is the best book ever, do you have more like this, I get really excited about it.”
Voting was open for the award, visit wayrba.org.au.
