Including All Children in the Royal Mail Scottish Children\'s Book Awards

Posted by Robert Stewart on the 29th November, 2010

The 2010 Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books is an innovative nationwide reading project in which children and young people from every corner of Scotland read and vote for their favourite Scottish children's books of the year. Last year:

• Over 31,000 children were involved and an amazing 15,014 votes were cast;
• Over 400 schools and libraries in every corner of Scotland, from Aberdeen to Dumfries; Shetland to Arran, took part;
• The 2009 awards ceremony brought 650 young judges from across Scotland together to see their peers act out the winning books.

The Royal Mail Awards for Scottish Children's Books were originally set up by the Scottish Arts Council in 1999 and are now run by Scottish Book Trust.

Children can vote for their favourite book, from a shortlist in each of three categories, either as individual readers or as part of a reading group in a school, library or bookshop. The shortlisted books are:

Early Years (0 - 7 years)

• What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson
• Love from Louisa by Simon Puttock and Jo Kiddie
• Stormy Weather by Debi Gliori

Younger Readers (8 - 11 years)

• Invisible Fiends: Mr Mumbles by Barry Hutchison
• The Secret of the Black Moon Moth by John Fardell
• The Dragon Whisperer by Lucinda Hare

Older Readers (11 - 16 years)

• Crossing the Line by Gillian Philip
• The Witching Hour by Elizabeth Laird
• Grass by Cathy MacPhail

But what about disabled children who can't read the books?

CALL Scotland has worked with the Scottish Book Trust and the authors and publishers to create accessible digital versions of the nine shortlisted books. The idea is that children and young people with physical, visual and reading or dyslexic difficulties, who can't read or access the paper books, can read the digital books instead and take part in the awards.

• Children with spinal injury, cerebral palsy or other physical impairments can click a switch or press a key on a computer, to turn pages and read the books by themselves.
• Dyslexic readers or children with visual impairments can change the font size and/or colours on screen, or use text-to-speech software to read the books.
• The books can be read out by the computer using "Heather", the high quality Scottish computer voice that is available free for schools and pupils from CALL Scotland's The Scottish Voice web site.

The books are available free of charge. Readers and schools can request accessible digital copies of the book(s) they wish to read via the Books for All website or phoning 0131 651 6236.