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20 books you can't miss!

Your chance to choose your favourite books from our choice of the twenty most lively, entertaining paperbacks published in the last twelve months.

The books will be in your school library and in your local library.

You can read what others have said about the books, and post your own reviews on this website.

How It Works

The Wirral 'Paperback of the Year' has been running since 1995 with pupils from up to 19 Wirral Secondary Schools taking part.

The Paperback of the Year was started to give young people from Years 8 and 9 the chance to read widely and to have their voices heard by choosing their favourite book.

• Twenty titles, first published in paperback in the previous twelve months are chosen by the Schools' Library Service (this is also a useful list for buying new books for the school library)
• A short-list is chosen from these twenty titles by each school by vote or discussion
• A Wirral short-list is compiled
• Representatives from each school discuss the short-list at a meeting in July and vote for their favourite book
• The winning author is invited to Wirral to meet and talk to pupils who have chosen their book
• Schools' Library Service lends a set of the books to each school - many thanks to the publishers whose donations have made this possible

Last Year's Winner(s) - 2008

Siobhan Dowd - A swift pure cry Inspired by true events, this is a beautifully written story, sad but not self-pitying, about a young girl caring for her young brother and alcoholic father after the death of her mother, who finds herself the centre of a scandal in her small Irish community. - [ Reviews ]

Marcus Sedgwick - My swordhand is singing “A finely written bone-chilling gothic tale.. the myriad horrors of the deep woods will transfix readers” - [ Reviews ]

Click here to view the Gallery of past events