Year 9 student, Jack Starkey, has written an account of his views regarding the Carnegie shortlisted books for this year.
“Every year a competition is held to find the best children’s book in England. The competition is for the Carnegie Medal. A group of Fyling Hall students, including international students, take part in this by reading the shortlisted books and deciding which one is the best and why.
On Fridays, we all give our opinions of the books, we have read over the week and we then change books and read until the next Friday. This year, the books included: All The Truth That’s In Me, Blood Family, Ghost Hawk, Liar & Spy, Roof Toppers, The Bunker Diary, The Child’s Elephant and The Wall. So far the favourite book is the Bunker Diary. 
My favourite is The Bunker Diary, because it is a book that makes you have questions in your head even after you read it. With every chapter, closing questions are answered but more questions arise. Even at the end you are left with the questions like: Who was the man upstairs? Why did he do what he did? Why did he choose those people to be in the bunker? Was it random or did he specially select them? Some people might say that unanswered questions are annoying and are not why the book is good. The Bunker Diary is also written in a way that anyone could understand and its plots has lots of twists and turns that change the lives of the people in the Bunker. Why not read it for yourself and form your own opinion?” Written by Jack Starkey Year 9