Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses is young readers’ top book

Published: 8th April, 2011
by EBAN MARKS

STEPHENIE Meyer, author of the best-selling Twilight series, has been trumped in Islington by Malorie Blackman as young readers’ choice for the most influential book of last year.

Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses – set in a dystopian future in which people with black skin (crosses) are dominant over those with white skins (noughts) – was voted for by the borough’s 12 to 16-year-olds.

The survey, run by  the Library and  Heritage Service, and Waterstones, saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney in second place, Jacqueline Wilson’s Girls in Love third, Perch Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan in fourth and Meyer’s Twilight a lowly fifth.

Five of the young people who voted, including one who voted for the winning book, will be awarded a £20 iTunes voucher.