Now more than ever is a time for imagination. While our world changes, every day people are finding new, creative ways to tell stories and spread joy. Now is the time to find comfort and inspiration in unbelievable words, extraordinary adventures and magical encounters with big friendly giants and tiny talking spiders. Now is the time to dream.
National Book Tokens, in collaboration with the Puffin Festival of Big Dreams, have teamed up with six of the UK’s most exciting children’s and YA authors including Robin Stevens, Yassmin Abdel-Magied and Carrie Hope Fletcher to ask children and young people aged 6-18 to do just that and there’s the chance to win up to £200 of National Book Tokens!
How to enter: write a story of up to 300 words, using the theme BIG DREAMS and submit it here by midnight on 28th May.
You can interpret the theme however you like: an epic fantasy inspired by a dream, an amazing adventure that takes place in another world, or a true-to-life story set in an imaginary school.
The judges will award one winner in each age group the grand prize of a £200 National Book Token, with added prizes of 2 x £100 and 16 x £50 National Book Tokens in each category. The winners will be announced on Sunday 14th June by the authors themselves at the Puffin Festival of Big Dreams on Puffin Books’ YouTube and Facebook channels, and the three winning stories will be published on the National Book Tokens’ website.
Good luck!
This competition was inspired by author John Boyne’s extraordinary short story competition, which saw thousands of young Irish writers submit their stories in the early weeks of the pandemic.
