CHILDREN from 200 schools across the county met winners of the Oxfordshire Book Awards, as voted for by them.

The unique awards involve hundreds of youngsters from 20 schools across the county, who nominate and then vote for their top books and authors of the year.

Malorie Blackman, whose Boys Don’t Cry won the secondary fiction prize, and Axel Scheffler, who illustrated Julia Donaldson’s Zog, both visited the Amey Theatre at Abingdon School for the annual awards ceremony.

Eight-year-olds Eva Mitchell, left, Lara Davies, Roisin Telford and Christy Antony, from St Mary’s Catholic Primary School in Bicester, were among youngsters who saw their favourite books turned into special cakes for the prizegiving.

Oxfordshire Book Awards organiser Jacky Atkinson said: “The main thing we are trying to do is encouraging children to read, and the chance to meet authors helps a lot. The awards are going from strength to strength with more children and more schools involved every year.”