National Non-Fiction November Competition Winners!

With last year’s NNFN theme of ‘Wonderful Water’, ‘Sea Change: Save the Ocean’, edited by Tobias Hickey of the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society at Worcester University, made the perfect book to use as the focus for our competition. Published by Otter-Barry Books, this is a collection of original postcards and messages from 50 illustrators across the world, working to celebrate and protect the precious life in our oceans. Children were invited to design their own postcard. On one side, they were asked to create a picture of their favourite watery location, using whatever techniques they chose, and then on the reverse, write about why this place is so important to them. We hoped this would be something which families, book groups, libraries and schools could all enjoy taking part in.

The range of entries was wonderful! We received 364 entries over the three age categories (5-7, 8-10 and 11-12) and had many lovely comments from adults saying how much the children had enjoyed -and been inspired by- the competition and the book. The judges had a really difficult time choosing the winners and had to look carefully at how closely the entrants had followed the brief to help them make their final decisions. The range and style of illustrations was impressive, showing a great deal of talent and the writing showed just how much watery locations mean to us whether rivers, lakes, waterfalls, or oceans.

Our three winners were all judged to have given really thoughtful explanations for why their chosen places are so important to them and the benefits they gain from visiting them. Each winner will receive a bundle of 5 Otter-Barry Books for their well-deserved prize.

The winners are:

5-7 category Grace

8-10 category Zac

11-12 category: Iona

Many thanks to Otter-Barry Books for their generous support of our competition. Congratulations to the winners- and thanks to everyone who took the time to enter.