Young readers in South Gloucestershire will find out next week who is the winner of their Concorde Children's Book Award.

The announcement will be made at a ceremony at Bradley Stoke Community School. It will be the culmination of a year-long project involving hundreds of pupils at the district's schools.

The award, now in its third year, was created to celebrate fiction being written for secondary school students, and to promote reading for pleasure. Back in May, students in all primary and secondary schools in South Gloucestershire were invited to vote for their favourite fiction book .

These suggestions were reduced to a long list of 19 books, which a panel of librarians had to read in two months .

Lisa Macdonell, librarian at the Bradley Stoke school, said: "Just carrying the box of books home was a challenge! But they were all great reads, so it was OK in the end."

They drew up a shortlist of five titles, which were read over the winter by members of book groups in 14 South Gloucestershire secondary schools and a public library. On March 5, World Book Day, the students submitted their votes.

The shortlisted books are: Ways to Live Forever – Sally Nicholls, Frozen Fire – Tim Bowler, The Black Book of Secrets – F. E. Higgins, Broken Soup – Jenny Valentine and Blade of Fire – Stuart Hill.