Primary Times - the definitive what’s on and where to go family guide of activities and events for children of primary school age. Things to do with your kids during the school holidays including arts and craft activities, music and theatre for children, parties, competitions, days out, and family attractions along with term time drama schools, dance classes, after school clubs and sports activities. Things to do at a place near you!
InspiRead Book Awards Announces its 2025 winners!
After eight weeks of reading and more than 2,000 votes, school pupils and library users across Nottinghamshire, Nottingham city and Derbyshire have crowned this year’s InspiRead Book Award winners! The awards scheme, run by Nottinghamshire’s Education Library Service (ELS), celebrates UK authors and children’s books and encourages reading for pleasure for children of all age groups in schools and libraries during the summer term.
Inspire’s Education Library Service has been providing a book-loan service to schools across Nottinghamshire and beyond for the last ninety-five years, helping to enrich the national curriculum, encourage reading for pleasure and support student wellbeing in primary, secondary, and special school settings. Originally launched by ELS in 2020 during the first Covid-19 lockdown as a virtual book award for primary schools, InspiRead has grown steadily and now features every year in Inspire libraries across the county. The awards programme has continued to flourish and reach more readers than ever thanks to support from Arts
librarians curate a longlist of twenty-four outstanding recently published children’s books, which is then narrowed down in Spring to a final shortlist of twelve titles across three categories. Schools are also invited to take part in virtual author talks, hosted with the support of the School Development Support Agency, and attend face-to-face workshops with the shortlisted authors at their local libraries - offering pupils the chance to connect with authors in memorable and engaging ways.
Among the three award categories and twelve shortlisted titles, the winners include:
Picture Books
Winner: A Wild Walk to School by Rebecca Cobb
Shorter Books
Winner: Ivy Newt and the Storm Witch by Derek Keilty Longer Books
Winner: Shadowhall Academy: The Whispering Walls by Phil Hickes
Longer Books
Winner: Shadowhall Academy: The Whispering Walls by Phil Hickes
Teachers can borrow these fantastic books from the Education Library Service’s base at Glaisdale in Nottingham, or anyone can visit their local library in Nottinghamshire to borrow the shortlisted and winning titles. For those who prefer to own their own copies, The Bookcase in Lowdham is offering a 20% discount on all titles and Wonderland Bookshop in Retford is providing a 20% discount specifically for schools. You can still enjoy all the virtual author talks from this year’s awards on the Inspire website.
For more information about the InspiRead 2025 Book Awards, resources and to watch our virtual author talks, please visit: InspiRead 2025 | Inspire - Culture, Learning, Libraries