On Thursday, 8 of the Reading Ambassadors attended the 2026 Oxfordshire Book Awards ceremony at Magdalen College School in Oxford. Last year, the Reading Ambassadors read the books shortlisted for Best Secondary Novel, and some visited our RET primaries to look at the Junior Novels and Picture Books too. It was very exciting, then, for them to hear from the winners! All the winning and highly commended authors and illustrators took to the stage to talk about their books and the process of writing them. Each of them gave a different and fascinating insight into the world of book-writing, illustration and publication. There was also a quiz (which we, sadly, didn't win) and a book sale and signing at the end, and every school left with a set of books to add to their library!

In all, it was a brilliant afternoon and we can't wait to get started on the books shortlisted for the 2027 awards!