Junior Juries' Programme

Juries are a unique programme for schools, libraries and book clubs, designed to encourage reading for pleasure and appreciation for a wide variety of books. Participating classes and book clubs make their own selection of suitable titles from the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards shortlist, which is announced in March. Using a specially devised activity pack, each group can engage with their chosen books by taking part in quizzes, debates, discussions, research projects, creative writing and visual art activities which will enhance their reading experience. At the end of the process each group is asked to collectively score the books they have read. Children’s Books Ireland collates these scores to determine the winner of the Junior Juries’ Award, formerly the Children’s Choice Award, which is presented at the official prize-giving ceremony in May.

The Junior Juries are suitable for all ages from 0–18. The books featured on the shortlist can range from picturebooks to young adult novels. However, given the ‘pick-and-mix’ structure of the scheme, it is possible to select a range of titles to suit your students’ or book club members’ age, linguistic ability and reading level. We have had baby and toddler book clubs take part, and on the upper end, groups of older teenagers through school or local book clubs. There is no need for a group to read every book on the shortlist, unless they wish to do so.

Participation in Junior Juries is completely free and includes an activity pack, bookmarks, a poster and phone/email support from Children’s Books Ireland (printed or digital available on request at sign up). Groups will need to source the books themselves; many groups involved in the scheme work in partnership with their local public library service and borrow the books. 25% discount is available for Junior Juries when purchasing from International Education Services. Schools in need which meet certain criteria can apply to receive the shortlisted books and a virtual or in-person event with a shortlisted author or illustrator and a set of age-appropriate shortlisted books. (4th to 6th class in the Republic of Ireland or Primary 6 and 7 in Northern Ireland).

Children’s Books Ireland cannot provide all juries with the shortlisted books. We suggest getting in touch with your local library to see which of the books you can borrow (ebooks, audiobooks and physical books), or sharing reading copies within the group in accordance with government health guidelines. However, with thanks to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Ecclesiastical, through their Movement for Good Awards, we do have funding to purchase books for a limited number of schools across the island who demonstrate a need. Please indicate this on the registration form. Please note that this is not a cash grant and there are limited numbers of books available.

No, you do not have to read all the books on the shortlist. Not every book will be suitable for all age groups, and we recognise that there is limited time between the announcement of the shortlist on March 9th and the deadline for Junior Juries’ votes which is May 12th, 2023. We will provide guidelines in the free Junior Juries’ activity pack in relation to any issues that may be raised in books for older children and teenagers, but we do recommend reading the book yourself if you have any concern about sharing it. We do encourage all groups to read the picturebooks that may feature on the shortlist: these are not just for toddlers; older readers can get a lot out of them, too! One of the goals of the Junior Juries is for children and young people to develop their critical thinking and debating skills, so even if a book seems ‘too young’, it can be read by an older child or teenager.

There are lots of different methods to choose from. The method you choose should reflect what will work best for your group:

• • Prescriptive – Facilitator chooses all the books
• • Child-led – Each participant has a turn to choose a book for the group to read
• • Popular vote – The facilitator chooses a number of suitable titles and the group makes the final selection from these

The shortlist will be announced on February 8th, 2023. We will email all Junior Juries the list of shortlisted titles, and the activity packs will also be delivered after that.

No, any group can take part. Many juries are school-based, and these can be whole classes, smaller book clubs or reading groups, or paired reading groups i.e. older children facilitating younger children. Other groups include book clubs based in bookshops or libraries, or hosted by parents/guardians in their own homes. There is no minimum or maximum number of readers for a Junior Jury.

A scoring or ballot sheet is included in your Junior Juries pack. It is helpful to make a copy of this for every juror in the group so they can score the books they read as they go along. We ask for each juror to score each book they’ve read out of 100. The group leader then collates the scores, finds the average score for each book read and sends these back to Children’s Books Ireland bv 12th May 2023.