Books Are Amazing!! The Doncaster Book Award has been celebrating the joy of reading since 2004.
Find out all about DBA, including our Statement on Restructuring | Read our Mission Statement | View our most recent book lists

A huge queue of enthusiastic readers wait to have their books signed by David Baddiel at our 2015-16 launch

Statement on Restructuring

The Doncaster Book Award Committee would like to advise our participants that we are currently undergoing a period of re-structure. As a consequence, we have reluctantly decided to temporarily suspend our main reading promotion activities from September 2019. We plan to re-launch again in 2020.

• Read Full Statement on DBA Restructuring, September 2019

What's New Here?

Just added: Jeanne Willis and Liz Million Event | Winners Announced | Panto in a Day | Shortlists Announced! | Amazing Viking Art Competition!

Latest Event: Jeanne Willis and Liz Million | - Updated 18 June 2019

Most Recent Book Lists (2018/19)

Jeanne Willis and Liz Million

Thursday 13th June 2019 saw over 400 children attend DBA’s very first major Key Stage 1 event. DBA were back at CAST in Doncaster with a tremendous event, starring Jeanne Willis and Liz Million.

• Full report and photos from the Jeanne Willis and Liz Million event

Winners Announced at our Fantastic Finale!

The winners of the 2019 Doncaster Book Award were announced at our amazing Finale at the Doncaster Dome on Thursday 11th April 2019.

And the winners are...

• Secondary List: Sophie Anderson, The House with Chicken Legs
• Primary List: Cressida Cowell, The Wizards of Once
• Non-Fiction List: M G Leonard, The Beetle Collector's Handbook

Another year, another magical celebration of children’s books at the Doncaster Dome, in a day absolutely jam-packed with excitement and fun. Our special guests this year were authors Janina Ramirez and David Solomons, popular illustrator Liz Million and, a first for the DBA, Jofor’s Hall Viking re-enactment group, appearing in full costume complete with weapons!

• View Full Report and Photo Gallery

Half Term Hilarity with our Panto at the Point

Almost 30 young people from 12 local schools and the home-educated community arrived at The Point Arts centre on a sunny February Friday all ready to flex their dramatic muscles with our friends from the Talegate Theatre company on a new and exciting production of 'Jack and the Beanstalk'.

• Full report and photos from 'Jack in the Beanstalk' Panto in a Day

Shortlists Announced!

Here are the shortlists for our most recent award (2018-19)

From the secondary longlist, these are the books which received the most votes:

• Sophie Anderson, The House with Chicken Legs
• Charli Howard, Splash
• Sally Nicholls, Things a Bright Girl Can Do (Age 13+)
• Janina Ramirez, Riddle of the Runes
• Lucy Worsley, Lady Mary

The books on the primary longlist which received the most votes are:

• Alex Bell, The Polar Bear Explorers' Club
• Cressida Cowell, The Wizards of Once
• Greg James and Chris Smith, Kid Normal
• Dermot O'Leary, Toto the Ninja Cat and the Great Snake Escape
• Andy Stanton, Natboff!

The winners were announced at our Finale Event at the Doncaster Dome on 11th April.

Fantastic Launch for the 2018-19 Award

On Thursday 11th October 2018 the DBA played host to three absolutely brilliant authors in what was definitely one of our best events ever. The Dome was filled with well over 1000 cheering, clapping and laughing children as Andy Stanton, Martin Brown and Andy Cope demonstrated once again the power of books to stir imaginations, inform and entertain and the sheer joy of reading.

View full details of DBA Launch 2018-19 (now with over 100 fantastic photos)

Book Lists

Check out our fabulous book lists for 2018-19 You’ll find books there from some of your most popular authors and discover some new favourites too. Lose yourself in these amazing stories. You can step into new worlds of magic and mystery, laugh and cry alongside the characters on their thrilling adventures, solve puzzles and explore magical realms. Most importantly: tell us what you think. We love to see your thoughts and opinions on the books you are reading, so post your reviews here on your website. Remember, you, the readers, are in charge and your votes alone will decide the shortlist and the winners! You might even win a prize in our brand-new ‘Review of the Month’ competition.

What’s Going On?

Our Events page has details of some of the amazing events we held in the year 2018-19.

Just some of the audience at our amazing 2017 Launch. Help us make this year's even bigger!

How Do I Take Part?

Please see our Restructuring Statement for the latest update on what's happening with the DBA this year.

Our Mission Statement

The Doncaster Book Award strives to promote reading for pleasure among our young people, in order to create a positive attitude towards books and reading and to extend reading choices. This will, in turn, lead to improved literacy levels, better educational outcomes and thus improve future economic prospects for Doncaster’s children. We also strive to provide children with opportunities for new and exciting experiences based around books and reading, to encourage positive social interaction between young people from all parts of the Borough and thus help make Doncaster a thriving reading community.