Award winning children’s author Ali Sparkes visited Truro School to lead an afternoon workshop and interactive presentation on her novel Carjacked, which was nominated for the Kernow Youth Book Award 2017.

Ali spent the afternoon reading extracts of the novel to Truro School’s reading group of second years, answering questions and involving students in fun interactive trivia to find out who in the room also had the potential to match the main character Jack’s level of child genius.

Carjacked is the story of 12-year-old child genius Jack, who is accidentally abducted when a bank robber steals his family’s car, leading to a series of events in which the Jack ends up using his intelligence to help the robber. The Kernow Youth Book Award is an accolade unique to Cornwall, co-ordinated by Cornish Librarians and English Teachers. The long-list, short-list and overall winner are decided upon solely by students from Cornish schools.

Truro School’s reading group selected to champion Ali’s novel Carjacked in this year’s awards, preparing a presentation on the novel for the awards ceremony that took place at the Eden Project last Wednesday. Ali’s visit was a fantastic opportunity for the students to discuss their ideas with the author in person and get some inspiration on how to perform in front of an audience.

Truro School librarian, Katherine Nelhams, said "Author events are a fantastic way to engage students with literature, enabling them to make a connection with the writers they love. Ali was an amazingly entertaining speaker and generated a real buzz for our readers, talking to them about life as an author, the creative process and what it’s like to ‘epically fail’ at quizzing on national television."