Yesterday, children from 73 schools across England were virtually visited by Waterstones Children’s Laureate and award-winning author, Cressida Cowell as part of Connecting Stories.
Connecting Stories is an Arts Council England-funded project to address the literacy attainment gap across our 14 local areas and increase children and young people’s access to literary experiences and books in communities most in need of support. 18 publishers and over 30 children’s authors are supporting the campaign through book donations and virtual visits.
Cressida Cowell is the author and illustrator of the best-selling How to Train Your Dragon books series, which has sold over 11 million books in 38 languages, is a major DreamWorks Animation film franchise, and is being made into a TV series on Netflix and CBBC. The Wizards of Once series, also created by Cressida, has been translated into 37 languages and has been signed by DreamWorks Animation.
In this live-stream event, Cressida delighted children with information on her book writing process and gave tips on becoming an author and illustrator. Children were also engaged with an exciting Q&A session, where Cressida shared her World Book Day wish that “all children could have access to books and libraries like sweetie shops” and read as many books as possible. She encouraged children to “write for the joy of it” and to take part in the Connecting Stories creative writing competitions. The deadline for entries is 12 March. Cressida, and publisher Hachette UK, have kindly donated signed books for the winners of the Connecting Stories writing competitions, age 7-11 categories.
Cressida Cowell says, “I am delighted to be supporting the Connecting Stories initiative. As an ambassador for the National Literacy Trust, I know the importance of their work and the positive effect it has on the children most in need of support with literacy skills. It's really exciting to be able to connect with children from many different communities all at once, and to inspire them to be creative and share their stories.”
Elsewhere, another Connecting Stories author, Darren Simpson, appeared on BBC Radio Nottingham to discuss the joys of reading and to encourage children to participate in the Connecting Stories competition.