Christmas came early to Brooke Weston Academy as all students in Year 7 received a free book from the Library as part of the 2023 Bookbuzz programme.

Bookbuzz is a reading programme by Book Trust, a children’s reading charity that supports schools to encourage reading for pleasure and develop a whole school reading culture.

Students were given the opportunity to choose a book from 16 titles to take home and keep. The books were all selected by a panel of experts to ensure quality, suitability and to encourage reading for pleasure and were designed to appeal to all students, regardless of their reading level.

Year 12 IEC students Ryan Acford, Ellie Pointon, Thomas Swinden, Layla Mansuri and Karniga Pakeerathan, carefully wrapped over 180 books with help from student librarians Emily Starkey (Y9) and Chloe Billam (Y8), with Leah Talbot-Sykes (Y11) also helping out.

The most popular title with the students this year was ‘Dread Wood’ by Jennifer Killick, a tense thriller about a group of school students forced to work as a team to defeat the most terrifying of hidden attackers.

The scheme has been running for several years at BWA and Librarian Wendy Mann said ‘The Bookbuzz programme introduces students to different genres of books they might not have read before. Being able to give the book as a gift to all the Year 7 students is something really special, and it helps to encourage a positive attitude towards reading.’

All the Bookbuzz books are available to borrow from the Library and next term a competition will be launched for Year 7 students to write a review on their chosen title and have a chance of winning more Bookbuzz titles.

To find out more about the Bookbuzz programme, visit the Bookbuzz website here