A book about a boy and his talking brain tumour has been selected by third and fourth year pupils from North Lanarkshire as the best in teenage contemporary fiction this year.

Anthony McGowan's Henry Tumour (published by Doubleday) – the story of Hector Brunty and his struggle to cope with his abusive talking brain-tumour, Henry, who is trying to take over his life – received the North Lanarkshire Catalyst Book Award 2007 at Motherwell Concert Hall following an online poll.

Pupils from all 25 secondaries in the area cast almost 1,000 votes for the four shortlisted books selected by the Catalyst Fiction Group, which comprises school and public librarians working within North Lanarkshire Council.

The shortlist included:

• Just in Case by Meg Rosoff (published by Puffin Books).
• Henry Tumour by Anthony McGowan (published by Doubleday) – also named winner of the 2006 Booktrust Teenage Prize.
• Startled by His Furry Shorts by Louise Rennison (published by Harper Collins Children's Books).
• Tokyo by Graham Marks (published by Bloomsbury).

This is the fourth North Lanarkshire Catalyst Book Award and previous winners include Bali Rai (2004), Theresa Breslin (2005) and Alan Gibbons (2006). The award was set up by The Catalyst Fiction Group to promote teenage fiction in North Lanarkshire's secondary schools and community libraries and encourage a higher level of teenagers reading for enjoyment. The group was established in 2004 and the awards ceremony has quickly established itself as a major event on schools and public libraries calendars.

Catriona Wright, Chairperson of the Catalyst Fiction Group, said: "Catalyst is all about putting the decision in the hands of our readers and I am delighted that so many pupils took the time to read the shortlisted titles and actually cast their votes. This shows that we are truly achieving our aims of encouraging young people to read more.

"There is so much quality teenage fiction out there and the Catalyst book groups that we hold at lunchtimes and the newsletters we produce give the young people many opportunities to express their opinions on the writing and have their say – and that's what they have done in selecting this year's winner.

"Anthony McGowan is a very worthy winner and Henry Tumour was very popular with our readers. It was a real pleasure for pupils who voted to meet Anthony at the award ceremony and discuss his work with him and I congratulate him on being our Catalyst winner for 2007."

Anthony himself said: "Winning the Catalyst Award is the greatest thing that's happened to me as a writer. Writing can be a lonely job, and these moments of connection with the readers are precious.