Doncaster Book Awards

The Doncaster Book Award strives to promote reading for pleasure among our young people, in order to create a positive attitude towards books and reading and to extend reading choices. This will, in turn, lead to improved literacy levels, better educational outcomes and thus improve future economic prospects for Doncaster’s children. We also strive to provide children with opportunities for new and exciting experiences based around books and reading, to encourage positive social interaction between young people from all parts of the Borough and thus help make Doncaster a thriving reading community. All About Us The Doncaster Book Award (DBA) is a not-for-profit Social Enterprise Company Limited by Guarantee. It is run by a committee of five volunteers who give their time free of charge. We are fully inclusive and all our events and activities are open to everyone and free to attend. ALL of the funding generated goes to cover running costs and provide our young people with fun and exciting reading-based activities. We are now into our 14th year of operation and have gone from 13 schools in our first year to over 75 in 2018. The DBA is unique in that it is entirely child-led; the website, logo and slogan have all been originally designed by the young people of Doncaster; they also choose the books on our lists, and they vote for the shortlist and winner each year. No adult gets a say! Our website is designed to give children a voice about what they are reading via our Reviews page and to showcase their activities. We are developing this idea further by providing slots for our young people on our monthly radio show and podcast on Sine FM. We provide an exciting and varied programme of events, activities and competitions that keep the profile of reading high, generate enthusiasm and the idea that reading is fun. These have been extremely varied and have included: visits from hugely popular authors such as Cressida Cowell, Andy Cope, Darren Shan, Simon Mayo, Cathy Cassidy and many more illustrator talks and workshops from artists including Chris Riddell, Viviane Schwarz, Liz Million, Chris Mould and Martin Brown Drama and Dance workshops working with a local theatre company, Talegate Theatre Vlogging workshops Poetry slams Ceramics workshops Sports-themed events ... the list goes on! Check out our Events page to see pictures and reports of our activities over the years. None of this would be possible without the generous support of our sponsors and we’d like to thank you all for helping to make it possible.