Schoolchildren Sarah Hayes from Basingstoke, Hampshire and Adam Pipe from Barnet, Greater London, have been chosen as judges for the Whitbread Children’s Book Award – one of the UK’s most prestigious book prizes.

Sarah (12) and Adam (11), pupils at Bishop Challoner School, Basingstoke and East Barnet Secondary School respectively, were selected after winning a ‘Presspackers’ competition on BBC Television’s CBBC Newsround programme, in which they had to write a review of one of their favourite books.

As winners of one of Newsround’s most popular competitions ever with over 1000 entries, Sarah and Adam will sit on the judging panel tasked with selecting the four best books in the Whitbread Children’s Book Award category.  Other judges on the panel include ITN News Presenter Katie Derham and BBC Newsround presenter Lizo Mzimba. 

“I like entering lots of competitions, but this is the first time I’ve ever won anything to do with books,” said Sarah, an avid reader, whose winning review was of her favourite book ‘Number the Stars’ by Lois Lowry.  Adam, who reviewed ‘Erigan’ by Christopher Paolini, said, “I’m very excited about being a Whitbread judge, and hope that I may get the chance to meet some of the authors.”

The winner of the Whitbread Children’s Book Award will be one of five books shortlisted for the overall Whitbread Book of the Year.  In addition to their judging role, Sarah and Adam will present a television report for Newsround to be screened on BBC TV, and will be invited to a celebrity-packed awards ceremony in London on Tuesday, 25 January 2005, at which the Whitbread Book of the Year will be announced.

The Whitbread Book Awards identify and celebrate some of the most enjoyable books published in the UK.  There are six awards in total - five category awards (Novel, First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book) and, from these, one overall winner - the Whitbread Book of the Year.  The total prize fund for the Awards is £50,000: each of the category award winners receives £5,000, and the overall winner receives a further £25,000.

The Whitbread Book Awards, in partnership with the National Reading Campaign, CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals), amazon.co.uk and the Booksellers Association, continually explore new ways of promoting the enjoyment of reading. 

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Notes for Editors:

1. The Whitbread Book Awards, established in 1971, aim to encourage, promote and celebrate the best contemporary British writing.
 
2. Since the introduction of the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 1985, it has been won six times by a novel, three times by a first novel, four times by a biography, five times by a collection of poetry and once by a children’s book. 

About Whitbread PLC:

Whitbread PLC is the UK's leading leisure business, managing some of the UK's strongest brands in hotels, restaurants and racquets, health and fitness clubs. Our 67,000 employees serve millions of customers each month at around 2,000 locations across the UK.

Our brands include Premier Travel Inn, Marriott (UK), Brewers Fayre, Brewsters, Beefeater, Pizza Hut (UK), Costa, T.G.I. Friday's and David Lloyd Leisure.

The company creates value for shareholders by focusing on growth in expanding sectors of the leisure market. In the financial year to March 4, 2004, Whitbread generated pre-tax, pre-exceptional profit of £240.8m on sales of more than £1.8bn.

Founded in 1742, the company is listed on the London Stock Exchange (as WTB.L) and is a member of the FTSE 100 and FTSE4Good indices.