Pol Castellanos, David Cirici, Jacques Goldstyn, Sophie Escabasse and Alan Gratz have been the winners of the new edition of the Atrapallibres and Protagonista Jove 2023 awards, which are convened every year by BBYcat and the Catalan Children’s and Youth Book Council and whose jury is made up of for 11,000 children and young people from all over Catalonia. Some awards that come to put a tinge of positivism to the results of the Pirls 2021 international report, according to which Catalonia is at the bottom of Spain and Europe in terms of reading comprehension.
Castellanos with L’assassina de Venècia (Polar Star) and Cirici with Els incendiaris (Fanbooks) have won the Young Protagonist in the 14 to 16-year-old category, while this year’s Atrapallibres Awards have been awarded to Alan Gratz, in the 11-year-old category, for L’Amy and the secret library (Takatuka); Sophie Escabasse, in the 10-year-old category, for Les bruixes de Brooklyn (Edebé) and Jacques Goldstyn, in the 9-year-old category, for Els estels (Youth).
The Atrapallibres and Protagonista Jove awards, promoted by the IBBYCAT-Consell Català del Libre Infantil i Juvenil, are awarded by a jury made up of 11,000 children who during the course read and vote on which, according to them, are the best works of children’s and youth literature in Catalan from the previous year.
The awards ceremony took place in Manresa, where the works nominated for the next edition were also announced. Some books such as Poni, by R.J. Palacio, Travel to Poetry in the pocket of jeans, by Chiara Carminati or Wild dogs, by Georgina Dalmau.
