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BookTrust launches Under My Sky poetry competition
Nicola Davies and BookTrust inspire children to explore nature and to get writing
Wednesday 14th November- BookTrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity and Nicola Davies, their current Writer in Residence, have launched a poetry competition encouraging primary school age children to write a poem about nature or their local environment.
One lucky winner will get a school visit from Nicola Davies and a wonderful stack of Nicola’s books for their school library. Then two runners up will each get a bundle of Nicola’s books. The winning poem, and 20 runners-up will also get their poem showcased on the BookTrust website.
Nicola Davies said of the competition: “When you want to write about something you have to really look at it; When you want to write a poem about something you have to think about it, and about what it means to you. So, this poetry competition is to make young poets LOOK at the natural world around them, and think deeply about it, what it means to them and to us all. Their poems will help us all to learn to really see nature and really value it; this is the most important and urgent lesson humanity needs right now.”
The competition is for pupils of a primary school age and children can take part as individuals or as a class. Their poems can be written in any style and any shape, just as long as it is about the environment. Children have until Friday 18th January 2019 to send in their poems.
BookTrust CEO Diana Gerald said: “We are thrilled to be working with Nicola on this excellent competition, inspiring children to get outside and get writing. We hope the competition highlights to children the wonders of the natural world around them, encouraging them to explore their creativity through poetry.”
Nicola Davies has some advice for the young poetry writers: “Look out of your window, even if all you can see is buildings, nature is all round you: the air and the clouds constantly changing are created by the life of our planet. Look at your face in the mirror, your hand holding the pen, evolution gave you a face, a hand that can hold a pen, a brain that can think. And evolution is the history of nature, a story that connects us all to each other and to every living thing alive now and that has been alive in the long journey of our planet.”
Full details of the competition can be found here.