Oxfordshire Book Awards 2025

On Wednesday 12 November, we had the pleasure of hosting the Oxfordshire Book Awards 2025 ceremony at MCS, which was attended by over 300 pupils from 32 local schools. There are three categories of books that are enjoyed and voted for by Oxfordshire’s children: Best Picture Book, Best Junior Book, and Best Secondary Book.

This year we were lucky to have all six of the award-winning and highly commended authors join us for the afternoon to collect their awards in person and to help celebrate Oxfordshire’s love of reading. The pupils got to enjoy a variety of inspirational talks, including a draw-along with kOrky Paul, a book reading, and sneak peeks of forthcoming publications which were given by authors Lanisha Butterfield, RAMZEE, Sarah Hagger-Holt, Holly Swain, Matt Goodfellow and Ravena Guron.

The popular children’s author and OBA Patron, Jo Cotterill, acted as Master of Ceremonies throughout the entire afternoon. Her superb OBA themed quiz got everyone involved as schools competed furiously to win the magnificent array of books that were on offer as the prize. In addition to this opportunity, there were several individual spot prizes offered to the dedicated readers in the audience which kept everyone on their toes throughout!

Afterwards, all the shortlisted titles for 2026 were shared with the audience for the whole process to begin again! Blackwell’s were in attendance to provide a pop-up shop in the Novello Room that allowed everyone the opportunity to purchase books at a special event price which could then be signed by the authors who had stayed to meet and greet their reading fans.

We can’t wait to see which books are popular with the readers next year and look forward to celebrating all things reading related!