Puffin Books together with the Eastside Educational Trust is championing its aim to build awareness and visibility of reading and books among a diverse population of young UK pupils, offering an East London school the opportunity to win best-selling author Louisa Young as a mentor for a whole academic year.
As part of its ongoing diversity initiative, Puffin aims to celebrate reading and writing within ethnically diverse schools through a creative competition based around the Lionboy trilogy, written by Louisa and her 14-year old daughter Isabel. Chosen for its handling of interesting themes such as ethnic minorities, the African continent, animal conservation, climate change and the use of medical science, Lionboy, with its mixed race hero Charlie at the heart of the story, lends itself brilliantly to the scheme in which twelve schools from Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Islington will be selected to participate.
Each school will be required to submit a story, artwork and another creative response to the Lionboy trilogy for the chance to host a programme of visits by Louisa who will share her author experiences, develop talent and work with students on their own stories.
Louisa Young, her daughter and co-author Isabel Adomakoh Young, Lionboy editor Sarah Hughes and a member of Puffin’s design team will judge the competition. The winning school will be evaluated on their ability to fully engage with the trilogy demonstrated through their creative activities.
All participating schools will be invited to an awards ceremony later this year, during which the winner will be announced. Louisa will then begin her mentoring at the start of the academic year in September 2007.
