North Lanarkshire teenagers have voted Spider the winner of the Catalyst Teenage Book Award for 2010..

From a longlist of 24 great books they chose three books for the shortlist.  these were

Auslander by Paul Dowswell

Bloodchild by Tim Bowler

Spider by Linda Strachan

Many thanks for the Catalyst Team who worked incredibly hard to make this award such a success on so many levels.

The teenagers  did a great job of  looking after us all, of introducing all three of the shorlisted authors, reading passages from the books and acting as compères for the awards.   My particular thanks to Debbie and Nina, who introduced me and read from Spider.  They were lovely and very professional.

We watched an excellent short film by Lensheads Film School, called Missing You. and then there were questions from the audience and the announcement of the winners of the review competition – and the winning school, which I will be visiting in the next few weeks,  St Aidan’s High School, Wishaw.

When it was time for the winner of the Catalyst Book Award 2010  to be announced I was so sure it would be one of the other books that it was a complete surprise when I heard them say

‘The winner is Spider by Linda Strachan.’

I was thrilled to win the award, most of all because it is chosen by the teenagers themselves – the very people Spider was written for –

Spider was my first novel for teenagers and although I have written many other books, this is the first book award Ihave ever won. So as you can imagine it is extra special.

But the real winners were the teenagers who read and engaged with the books -whether they were reading Spider, Bloodchild or Auslander – or any of the 24 great books on the longlist.  –  and as far as I am concerned  just being on the shortlist made alll three authors winners.

I really enjoyed the chance to spend time with the other shortlisted authors, Tim Bowler and Paul Dowswell, who are both great writers, fascinating to talk to as well as being kind and generous people.