THESE young bookworms from Fareham will be helping to decide who wins one of the country's top literary prizes.

They will be casting an expert eye over books shortlisted for this year's Smartie's Book prize - the children's book award.

The year five pupils from Harrison Primary School have been chosen to bury their noses in novels written for three

different age categories - five and under, six to eight and nine to 11.

They then have to decide on a gold, silver and bronze award for each category and create a project based on the book.

School literacy manager Elena Ponsen said the children are thrilled they have been chosen.

She said: "The children had to do a project on books of the future to enter and obviously they have proved that they are suitable judges for the competition. We are absolutely ecstatic they have done so well."

Chris Meade, chief executive of Booktrust, the charity involved with the Smartie's Book Prize awards, said: "They will gain huge enjoyment from reading the shortlisted books.