Shortlist for the KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards 2021 Announced

The titles competing for this year’s KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards have been revealed. I’m delighted to have been asked to act as this year’s ‘Young’ judge.

The shortlisted titles are:

Hope against Hope written by Sheena Wilkinson 
Míp written by MáireZepf and illustrated by Paddy Donnelly 
Savage Her Reply written by Deirdre Sullivan and illustrated by Karen Vaughan 
The Boldness of Betty written by Anna Carey 
The Falling in Love Montage written by Ciara Smyth 
The Haunted Lake written and illustrated by P.J. Lynch 
The Monsters of Rookhaven written by Pádraig Kenny illustrated by Edward Bettison 
Why the Moon Travels written by Oein DeBhairduin illustrated by Leanne McDonagh 

Joining the panel for this year’s KPMG Children’s Books Ireland Awards was an incredible process which I enjoyed from start to finish.

Reading my way through the treasure trove of Irish books was by far my highlight of 2020.

Each judge contributed so much to the panel, and the insights and perspectives put forward taught me so much, and I am so grateful to have been a part of it all.

I cannot imagine doing anything differently, the whole process was fun, transparent and insightful. I was made feel so welcome by everyone, and it was clear that, as a young person, my thoughts were valuable to the group.

Hearing the voice of someone immersed in children’s books is so important in the process. And whilst we all enjoyed the process we certainly worked hard!’

final attempt b4 i give up.png

Ireland Reads: The Great Escape!

I was delighted to participate in a discussion on all things books as part of Ireland Reads. Chaired by Rick O’ Shea and joined by Sebastian Barry, Catherine Gallagher and Prof. Luke O’ Neill, we had a wonderful time discussing everything reading-related! The Ireland Reads Day was a huge success- Ireland read for over 855,000 minutes in one day ! Thanks to everyone who took part.

Watch the video in full here.

Science Foundation Ireland Best Project Award - Sci Fest 2020

Well done to all the dedicated students who entered over 430 projects to SciFest@College 2020 and many congratulations to the lucky winners.

Anne Peare and I were delighted to win The Science Foundation Ireland Best Project Award for our project  “A Statistical And Experimental Analysis Of The Link Between Reading For Pleasure And Problem-Solving Skills” which proved that those who read books for pleasure have better problem-solving skills than those who do not.

Our research continues, and many thanks to Mr Shaun Holly our teacher at KCS.

https://scifest.ie/Page/Cork-Institute-of-Technology-Award-Winners-2020/240631/Index.html 

Appearance on Nationwide

In the lead up to Cruinniú na nÓg, Marian Malone from RTÉ’s Nationwide programme reported on how children all over the country have been participating in online workshops and lessons designed to tap into and unleash their boundless imagination. I was delighted to feature in the programme.

I was honoured to be appointed as a Creative Ambassador for Cruinniú na nÓg 2019 by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht. Cruinniú na nÓg is an annual, one day festival which offers free, fun, creative events for young people across Ireland. 2019 was the second year of Cruinniú na nÓg, and in 2018 over 500 events happened in each of the 31 local authority areas in Ireland, with thousands of children taking part both on the day and in the run up to the occasion. I am thrilled to learn that Ireland is the first and only country to have a national day embracing creativity in young people. For more on my work with Cruinniú na nÓg click here.

#stayathomereadabook - The Stay At Home Read A Book Challenge!

Hello readers!
The Stay At Home Read A Book Challenge is now closed. We would like to take the time to thank all entrants for your fantastic reviews, and hope you will keep reading! A huge thanks also to all those who sponsored prizes, we couldn’t have run such a successful competition without you! Here is a list of the 6 winners of the competition, who have all been contacted directly regarding their prizes:

  • Sophie Lavanant

  • Barry McGinn

  • Nora Gould

  • Sophie Peare

  • Isabelle Linehan

  • Sinead Hynes

Happy reading!

Sarah & Cillian Fitzgerald
www.sarahsbookproject.com
#stayathomereadabook

NEWS UPDATES 2020

MOVIE REVIEW:

My all-time favourite book has to be Little Women, and the 2019 adaptation has become my all-time favourite movie! To see my review please click here.

SAFER INTERNET DAY 2020:

Stay tuned for Safer Internet Day 2020! I am an ambassador for this event and you can visit www.webwise.ie for more details. February 11th is Safer Internet Day ! #SID2020

There will be events hosted and lots of competitions and prizes. I attended Google HQ for a briefing on this last week with my other fellow SID Ambassadors. Looking forward to a fun day!

Busy few days…

JUNIOR SCIENCE OLYMPIAD

I was delighted to be selected for the Irish Junior Science Olympiad along with David Nolan and Ellen Doyle, two fellow Kinsale Community School students. It was a fantastic event which was held in Dublin City University, and we all learned so much on the day.

WEST CORK GARDA YOUTH AWARDS

I recently attended a superb evening celebrating the youth in West Cork, and I was honoured to be selected as one of the overall winners for the event. It was the 24th West Cork Garda Youth Awards and I look forward to representing Kinsale at the National Competition in 2020.  Thanks to my number one supporter Cillian for supporting me at this event as always :)

KINSALE LIONS CLUB CHARITY FUNDRAISER

I really enjoyed helping out with the Kinsale Lions Club Charity Fundraiser for the Alzheimer's Society of Ireland.  My friends Aoife Walsh and Anna Peare helped me on the evening which was a great success, and took place in St. Multose in Kinsale. I enjoyed working with Kinsale Lions Club on behalf of Kinsale Community School.  Such talented artists with the band of An Garda Siochana, leading Soprano Orla Fogarty and the award winning Amanda Neri who compered the event.

Autumn update:

It has been a very interesting few months with lots of positive things happening. My friend Anna Peare and I were delighted to have our project accepted for the BTYSE 2020, and are excited to start working. We also did a panel discussion as part of the Kinsale Literary Festival 2019, with our other two friends Aoife Walsh and Rachel Henderson, which was a really enjoyable experience. I more recently spoke at the 3rd annual Creative Ireland Cork County Conference 2019 " Supporting Creativity in Young People" during which I enjoyed meeting fellow bookworms. I also had the amazing opportunity to speak at the Read On conference in West Cork, where I met some other enthusiastic reading advocates and had a really receptive audience.


Aoife, Anna, Rachel, our other bookworm friend Meadhbh and I had a really super YA book panel discussion in Waterstone's Cork as part of Irish Book Week, with leading authors Cethan Leahy and ER Murray, and my panel and I loved the discussion and found they were lovely authors to work with. We were thrilled to meet them and discuss their wonderful books, and are so grateful that they took the time to join us in the store to talk all things reading!

My Trip To The Oireachtas - By Cillian Fitzgerald

So I woke up at 6.00am and got ready, got in the car and headed to the Oireachtas. We stopped in Kildare Village on the way for brekkie.  When we arrived I was so tired because of the 4 hour journey but it was a big day so I decided to put my tiredness to the side and politics hat on.  We headed in to the Oireachtas buildings.  We were greeted by a friendly group of political leaders.

We took a few photos in the buildings in the background and headed in.  We went to a meeting room and my sister displayed her project to the first committee. We met with Senator Denis O Donovan, Jim Power, Margaret Murphy O Mahoney, Senator Gerard Craughwell, Minister Regina Doherty, Minister Jim Daly, Senator Tim Lombard, Darragh Collery and more. They were all very interested in Sarah’s work and research.

My sister displayed her project and we attended the leaders questions which was really interesting.  On our way out we met the one and only Leo Varadkar, Taoiseach.  It was a pleasure to meet him.  Just as I thought it couldn’t get any better, we met Simon Coveney, Tánaiste.  He was such a nice guy.  I hope to meet him again. We had lunch in the Oireachtas . The best day so far ever !

JA2_2226+(1).jpg

Trip to London

Thanks to Walker Books and The RTE Late Late Toy Show, I had the opportunity to share my passion for books with leading publishers Walker Books of London. I received unforgettable tour of the Publishing House and enjoyed every second of the experience!

They are such a lovely creative team to meet and it was so interesting to find out about all the super books they have published. It included a trip to the original Waterstones - what a treat!

sarah2.jpg

The Late Late Toy Show

I have been an avid reader since I was 4 and this passion for reading and writing led me to appear on the Late Late Toy Show 2017. I reviewed the book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls, which is an incredible book about famous and inspirational women both today and in history. I would highly recommend the book and its sequel!
I was thrilled to receive the prize of a trip to Walker Books in London on the Toy Show, and am so grateful to everyone who made this happen.