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Student receives free books after impressing publisher

A major publisher has sent one of our students a collection of books after she impressed its staff with her knowledge.

A major publisher has sent one of our students a collection of books after she impressed its staff with her knowledge.

Year 9 student Lauren Shirlaw was looking at books in a supermarket when she was approached by a woman who asked her what she thought of the store’s selection.

The woman turned out to be Walker Books’ Key Accounts Manager Philippa Fairhall and she was so impressed by Lauren’s responses she arranged for a number of books to be sent to our Academy to enable Lauren to provide her with feedback about them.

CBA Librarian Amy McKay said: “We have a very strong reading culture here and we have some incredibly passionate readers, including Lauren.

“It’s become a long-standing joke that when one of them goes to the supermarket with their parents they will spend the whole time looking at the store’s books.

“When Lauren was at the supermarket recently she was approached by Philippa who started asking her what she thought of the selection of books.

“Lauren said she thought supermarkets tended to go for ‘safe books’ and stuck to popular titles and they discussed why certain titles were controversial and the importance of knowledgeable book sellers.

“Philippa told me that meeting Lauren had reminded her why publishing books is so important and I think Lauren surprised herself with how knowledgeable she is about books.

“Lauren was delighted when the books arrived here – it was like Christmas had come early for her.”

Lauren will choose staff and students to read some of the books and will then collect their feedback.