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Patterson donates £50,000 to inaugural World Book Day Award

American author James Patterson is donating £50,000 (A$92,300) to the inaugural World Book Day Award, which gives UK and Ireland school libraries the chance to win funding to purchase books from bookshops, reports The Bookseller. The award offers a first prize of £10,000 (A$18,500) worth of books, a second prize of £5000 (A$9230) worth of books and three runners up win £3000 (A$5540) worth of books. Each school entering the prize must create a piece of writing, art, film or photography on the topic of ‘why we can’t live without books’. A panel will decide on a shortlist of eight to 10 entries and the winners will be announced World Book Day 2015 on 5 March. ‘Better readers become better thinkers,’ said Patterson. ‘I’m convinced that kids need to be inundated with books they actually like if they are ever going to get better at reading. Right now we need places where kids can go and talk about books—and libraries are those places. Children have a fundamental right to libraries in schools.’ Patterson previously pledged £250,000 (A$461,000) to UK independent booksellers and US$1 million (A$1.2 million) to US independent bookstores.

 

Category: International news