The writers had their hearts in their mouths. Each had won one category in the Costa Awards, but now the biggest prize was about to be announced: the Costa Book of the Year. Reeta ChakrabartiA BBC journalist and newsreader. She chose the poet John Keats as her special subject when she appeared on Celebrity Mastermind., the chair of the judges, announced the winner: Hannah Lowe.

Lowe's book The Kids is a collection of sonnetsPoems that are 14 lines long and usually have 10 syllables per line. inspired by her teaching in London. She wanted to portray her students, "with all their humour and wit and complexity". But the poems are also about her schoolteachers - and her son.

The sonnets deal with subjects like retaking exams, texting in class and the many different backgroundsLowe grew up in Ilford with an English mother and a Jamaican-Chinese father. that classmates come from.

They share what it is like to be the teacher: "It can be scary, it can be joyous and everything in between." The Kids is "a love song to young people and to the kids that I taught, who taught me so much... about personal things, and public and political issues to do with feelings of belonging".

For Reeta Chakrabati: "It's joyous, it's warm and it's completely universal... in a simple way, because everybody's been to school."

"Each of Lowe's sonnets is a blackboard chalked with the tales of earnest teachers, of cheeky and lovable students," said poet, Daljit Nagra.

Lowe chose to write sonnets though they are a difficult form of poetry. She believed they could appeal to teenagers if the subject matter was familiar. Even the sonnet's shapeBecause the lines are generally short, a sonnet usually looks rectangular., she says, is a reminder of the classroom, it is rectangular like a blackboard.

Lowe is not alone in believing that adults can learn from children. Some of the cleverest people have shown their ability at a young age.

Aged 15, the 17th-Century French mathematician, philosopher and physicist Blaise Pascal published an essay so brilliant other mathematicians thought it must be his father's. Two years later he invented the first widely used calculatorHis machine could add and subtract mechanically..

In the same century, the Mexican writer Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz wrote her first dramatic poem aged eight.

This year Marcus Rashford will publish a book: You Can Do It: How to Find Your Team and Make a Difference. Its aim is to teach children "how to use your voice to make a meaningful change for the better".

Part of the debate is whether the voting age should be lowered. In most countriesIn a few countries, such as Kuwait, the voting age is as high as 21., it is 18.

Yes: Over 25% of the world's population is 14 or under. Children have a different perspective than adults. They would bring more passion to debates.

No: There are many areas of life that children do not know about. They tend to see issues in black and white, adults know from experience that the world is more complicated.

Or... Adults like to dismiss children as naive, while children dismiss adults as out of touch. But both generations have something to offer. They should listen to each other more.

The Kids by Hannah Lowe is available from Bloodaxe Books (£10:99)