A SCHOOL librarian has proved she’s on the same page as pupils after being named Scotland’s most influential learning professional in children’s literature.

Susan Morton, who works at Inverclyde Academy, says it was a ‘huge surprise’ to win The Scottish Book Trust award.

She received the prestigious title for her tireless work in transforming attitudes to books and reading amongst pupils at her school.

Susan said: “I had no idea I had been nominated, so that was a huge surprise and it was an even bigger surprise to know that I’d won!”

Since she was hired a year ago, Susan has revitalised the school library, transforming it into a vibrant hub, with pupils fully engaged in choosing new purchases for the bookshelves. 

Susan has quadrupled the number of titles in the library, which led to a similar surge in the number of pupils borrowing books.

She secured a fully-funded residency with local author Cathy MacPhail to work with an S2 class to create their own anthology, which culminated in a launch event for their printed work.

Susan also created a comic book club to attract reluctant readers and encourage young people to try creating their own comics.

Marc Lambert, chief executive of the Scottish Book Trust, says Susan’s work to encourage children to read is ‘outstanding’.

He said: “From one room in a school, Susan Morton has shown the huge impact a motivated and creative learning professional can have on a whole community. 

“Susan is an outstanding example of the wonderful work being done by many teachers and librarians across Scotland in nurturing a culture of reading for pleasure.

“Staff and pupils at Inverclyde Academy feel extremely lucky to have her at the school and after such an impressive first year we know she will continue to bring books into the lives of many more children, inspiring them to a love of books and reading.”

Susan received her award at a glittering ceremony at the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh, above. Also in attendance was Mairi Hedderwick, also pictured, the writer and illustrator of the hugely popular Katie Morag series of books, who is originally from Gourock.

She received the ‘Outstanding Achievement Award’ while local author Cathy MacPhail was a guest at the event.