Hillbrook Primary School in Tooting, London has been named runner-up in the third annual World Book Day Award announced on World Book Day.

The school was chosen as one of three runners-up for the Award, each winning £3,000 worth of books for their libraries. The first prize of £5,000 worth of books was awarded to Cherry Burton Primary School in East Yorkshire, and an additional 10 schools were awarded the third prize of £1,000 worth of books.

Each year, schools are invited to take part in a creative challenge, which celebrates reading for pleasure – this year picture book giant, Oliver Jeffers and acclaimed fine artist, Sam Winston asked schools to create their own ‘world of stories’ inspired by their new children’s book, A Child of Books, published by Walker Books, who have funded the Award for 2017.

In response to this challenge, Hillbrook Primary created an immersive ‘World of Stories’ display of 3-D miniature houses decorated with pictures and words from the children’s favourite books, from The Very Hungry Caterpillar to The BFG.

The houses, designed to represent the unique and magical worlds contained within their favourite stories, started as an art project for Year 3 classes. However, the project soon expanded into a whole-school celebration of books and reading with teachers and pupils of all ages contributing to the display. Eventually growing to fill an entire corridor, the display became its own little world of stories with miniature storybook-houses hanging from the ceiling and walls.

Winning entries from the West Coast of Scotland to the West Midlands and Northern Ireland were chosen by a panel of judges consisting of Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston, World Book Day Director Kirsten Grant and Arts Editor for The Times Alex O’Connell.

Jasmin Dwyer, Art teacher at Hillbrook Primary School said: “We’re so honoured to have been awarded second prize for our entry to the World Book Day Award. The parents and pupils here at Hillbrook Primary worked incredibly hard and had so much fun crafting their miniature houses and creating their very own little world of stories. It was fantastic to see so many parents and children come together to collaborate on our beautiful display. At Hillbrook we believe reading for pleasure is essential to children’s development, and the addition of £3,000 of new books to our library will be nothing short of life-changing for our pupils.”

Speaking on the judging process, Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston said: “It was incredibly difficult to choose between all of the fantastic responses we received. Each entry was clearly crafted with passion and imagination, and we loved seeing the types of stories that are engaging children today. We were particularly impressed with Hillbrook Primary’s ingenious use of space for their display - hanging their 3-D miniature storybook-houses from the ceiling and walls to transform one of their corridors into an immersive world of stories.”

Article supplied by Adam Octavian Dannreuther