WORLD BOOK DAY’S STORYTELLING SUPERSTAR IS NAMED
Julia Donaldson and Cressida Cowell reveal Britain’s best storyteller
Once upon a time Children’s Laureate and author of The Gruffalo, Julia Donaldson and How To Train Your Dragon author Cressida Cowell began their quest to find the most talented and enchanting storyteller in the land who would be crowned World Book Day’s Storytelling Superstar.
And now the search is over with Alison Williams from Kensington named the first ever Storytelling Superstar. Alison left the judges highly impressed with her engaging retelling of The Tale of The Little Raindrop – performed with the inventive use of a nappy and Christmas tree bauble!
Mum of one Alison was joined by other talented mums, dads, grannies, teachers and librarians from across the country in the rush to have their storytelling skills scrutinised by Julia and Cressida, whose respective bestselling books have captured the imagination of millions.
Alison was delighted to be rewarded with the accolade, which comes with the prize of a year’s worth of children’s books from National Book Tokens*. She said: “I never expected to be selected as a winner when I entered the Storytelling Superstar competition – it is a true honour and I’m thrilled!
“I think it is brilliant that World Book Day is recognising the hard work of the millions of storytellers up and down the country doing their bit to get children engaged in books, with parents reading to their children and children to their parents”.
Cressida Cowell said: “I am delighted that Alison has been named Storytelling Superstar. The quality of entries for the country’s first ever ‘Storytelling Superstar’ search has been truly outstanding and therefore exceptionally difficult to judge. I was kept highly entertained by each and every one of our entrants. Alison was brilliant, original and incredibly inventive and hooked in the young audience with a well-told tale.”
Julia and Cressida were joined on the judging panel by Sue Jones OBE, The Reading Agency’s Programme Manager for Young People. Sue heads up the MyVoice project, which gives young people the chance to co-create and produce creative reading events in libraries. Sue said: “Good reading starts early and research shows that children who share a book with others are more likely to develop language skills and advanced reading levels. Libraries across the country have been supporting Storytelling Superstar – it’s the natural place to look for books to inspire children.”
