Drawings and paintings by the UK’s best young artists will be published in a new picture book entitled The Day the Bombs Fell, as the culmination of a UK-wide illustration competition jointly launched by disaster relief charity ShelterBox and national charity The Reading Agency’s Chatterbooks network of children’s reading groups.
The Day the Bombs
Fell – which will be unveiled at a special
event in London
This is the fourth annual illustration
competition organised by the two charities, which each year has focussed on a
different type of disaster that ShelterBox has responded to: this year’s theme
is ‘conflict’. It has been spearheaded once again by renowned author and
illustrator Michael Foreman, who created his own evocative image to publicise
the competition and selected the winning entries along with author Claire
White. Michael, who will also treat the young winners to a unique illustration
workshop at the book’s launch event, says: “Putting words and
pictures together can be a powerful combination. Children respond to this at a
very early age and swiftly start to do it themselves. You might think that
‘conflict’ would have been an unattractive topic, but our young entrants this
year have produced dynamic, touching and really rather beautiful images. There
was no sense of the 'glory' of battle – virtually all sympathized with the
victims, the innocent. I am sure the finished book will be very moving indeed.”
The competition challenged teachers and children to explore a
story about conflict and bring it to life with their pictures, giving them a
unique opportunity to understand how a disaster like this might affect families
and communities involved. It coincides with ShelterBox’s newly-launched £2
million campaign to raise awareness of the plight of Syrian refugees, in
particular children who have been affected: £1 from the sale of each copy of The
Day the Bombs Fell will be
going to help provide shelter for Syrian refugee families.
ShelterBox chief executive Alison
Wallace, says: “Children’s drawings and paintings provide a fascinating window
on real events. The vivid and emotive illustrations we received on the subject
of conflict show how thoughtful young minds are about the nature of war and
peace, especially given their exposure to the issues raised by the Syrian
crisis. The resulting book certainly makes engaging reading for young people,
but it also offers their parents a new perspective.”
Jo Martin, who teaches at Athersley South Primary School in Barnsley, South Yorkshire says: “By
taking part in the competition, the children learnt how to empathise with
others who are experiencing war. They enjoyed creating a picture to represent
the words of the story. The idea of having their work published in a book was a
fantastic motivator for the children and really made them think carefully about
what the book represented and how they could do it justice.”
Thelma Grindley, 11, from William Tyndale School in London says:
“I felt really surprised when I found out that I was one of the winners! I am
very pleased that my picture will be in a book like this because it was really
interesting learning about the situations in different countries.”
Chatterbooks is a reading group programme coordinated by The
Reading Agency for children aged seven to twelve. There are
712 Chatterbooks children’s reading groups running in UK schools and
libraries etc involving 10,000 children. Chatterbooks promoted the illustration
competition to libraries and library-supported children’s reading groups, and a key aim of the competition was
to encourage more schools to join its network.
Chatterbooks children’s reading groups run in libraries, schools
and other community venues. They support children’s literacy development by
encouraging them to have a really good time reading and talking about books.
The Chatterbooks programme also gives a best practice framework for creating
inspiring reading groups for primary school aged children, helping them work
together to encourage reading for pleasure, an important factor in educational
attainment, and in meeting schools’ statutory targets and standards. Research
shows that reading for pleasure is a more important determinant of children's
educational success than their family's socio-economic status. (Please see
‘Notes to editors’ for more details.)
Lynne Taylor, Chatterbooks
programme manager at The Reading Agency says: “We're delighted to be working with ShelterBox on this
competition. The ShelterBox theme of ‘conflict’ has been a real inspiration for
children in schools and Chatterbooks reading groups. They had a wide range of books to read,
linked to the theme, which helped them to understand and empathise with the
experiences of people in times of war. Their vivid illustrations show how much
they have gained by thinking about the story and expressing their feelings.”
· Journalists and photographers are invited to
attend the 7 November launch event between 1400-1500, which will be held at The
Reading Agency’s central base; The Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road,
London, EC1R 3GA.
· Images of the winning entries can be viewed and downloaded at: www.flickr.com/photos/shelterboxuk/
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