Friday 13th January, a dark and chilly night, hordes of teenagers determinedly moving towards a gothic building on the south coast...yes, Roedean was hosting the eighth Southern School Book Awards (SSBA) and seven girls from Davison CE High School were amongst the audience.

This year's shortlisted novels were Being Billy by Phil Earle, Ghost of a Chance by Rhiannon Lassiter, Wasted by Nicola Morgan, The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight by Jenny Valentine and Numbers Two: the Chaos by Rachel Ward.

The SSBA presentation evening, enthusiastically hosted by last year's winner Lucy Christopher, was attended by 290 students and staff from 34 state and independent schools in Kent and Sussex. The students, mostly aged 13 to 14, had read and voted for all five titles on the shortlist and were on the edge of their theatre seats, anticipating the results of the voting.

We, from Davison School had really good seats very near the front, so all the excitement from the stage seemed to be aimed right at us. Annis Ferrey from year 9 volunteered to go on stage to collect the book vouchers for Davison girls, as each pupil received a £7 book voucher.

After the schools had received their book tokens, the gold and silver envelopes were produced with a flourish and the tension was palpable as Lucy requested the traditional drum roll just before revealing the results. And the winner of the 2011 award was Jenny Valentine with The Double Life of Cassiel Roadnight. The Highly Commended category was awarded to Numbers Two: the Chaos by Rachel Ward.