Incredible Prizes To Be Won: A Literary Treasure Trove
Discover a world of wonder and make a lasting impact with our extraordinary prize draw!
By entering, you're not just aiming to win incredible prizes – you're investing in diverse voices shaping the future of children's literature. Our Pathways Into Children's Publishing programmes offer accessible, affordable alternatives to higher education routes for aspiring writers, illustrators, and publishers from diverse backgrounds. Many face barriers due to location, socio-economic challenges, or historical marginalisation. Your support helps break these barriers, providing expert mentorship from published authors, illustrators, and industry professionals.
Picture bringing these magical prizes to a child you know, your local school, or a youth project:
1) 12 original signed illustrations from Chris Riddell's "Indigo Takes Flight"
2) Exclusive tickets to James Mayhew's live art concert, plus signed "Katie" art books
3) A virtual visit from bestselling author Smriti Halls for your school
4) An online character drawing workshop with New York Times bestseller Selom Sunu
5) Unique signed artworks from double Oscar's Book Prize winner Benji Davies
6) A magical reading-for-pleasure book collection of 25 titles for 3-7 year olds from Simon & Schuster
7) A fabulous reading-for-pleasure book collection of 25 titles for 7-11 year olds from HarperCollins Children's Books
These treasures, generously donated by our esteemed author and publisher friends, could be yours! The more tickets you buy, the greater your odds of winning – and the more you contribute to nurturing diverse talent in children's publishing.
Don't miss this chance to win big, inspire young minds, and help craft stories that will captivate generations to come. Enter now and be part of this transformative journey in children's literature!
Read on below for more detail on each prize.
Win one of these AMAZING prizes!
- Chris Riddell, former Waterstones Children’s Laureate, three-times Kate Greenaway award winner, and author-illustrator of the Goth Girl and Ottoline series, is donating 12 signed original, unframed illustrations! The illustrations form the ENTIRE sequence of Indigo Takes Flight, a beautiful and compassionate story about a boy with a secret dragon, with themes of coming to terms with who you are and finding acceptance from those you love.
- James Mayhew - known by children and museum visitors around the world as the author-illustrator of the Katie picture books - is giving away two tickets to one of his fantastic live concerts, a Christmas Spectacular with the De Havilland Philharmonic Orchestra in Hatfield, December 1st at 2pm. This dazzling concert features James himself painting illustrations LIVE on stage alongside a full symphony orchestra. With much-loved Christmas music by Rimsky-Korsakov, Prokofiev and Coleridge-Taylor, this will be an unforgettable festive treat. In addition to this, James is also offering a set of Katie art books, signed and dedicated.
- Selom Sunu is a New York Times bestselling children’s illustrator of books with Jason Reynolds for Knights Of, The Christmas Carrolls and The Marvellous Granny Jinks, as well as a TV character designer for CBBC. Selom is offering a one-off, live online character drawing workshop for 9-11 year-olds in a primary school of your choice. Win a pack of signed books for the same class too!
- Picture book writer and illustrator Benji Davies, two-times winner of the Oscar's Book Prize, for The Storm Whale and Tad, and author-illustrator of the Sainsbury's Children's Book of the Year award-winning Grandad's Island, is offering THREE very special one-off signed artworks from all three of those picture book titles!
- Smriti Halls is the writer of over 50 picture books published in over 40 languages, including Rain Before Rainbows and the I’m Sticking With You series. She is offering an online event for a primary school to encourage a love of reading and writing stories. Smriti’s event will include a talk about being a writer, her books, and where she gets ideas from, plus of course a fun, interactive reading and time for all your questions. We’re also going to gift a pack of Smriti’s books, signed by the author, to the same school so they can get to know her stories ahead of their event!
- Children’s publisher Simon & Schuster are donating a magical reading-for-pleasure collection of 25 bestselling and award-winning picture books for 3-7 year olds - perfect for a school book corner or an incredible addition to any family’s book collection. Includes bestselling titles from the Supertato, Aliens Love Underpants and The Littlest Yak series!
- HarperCollins Children’s Books are donating a fabulous reading-for-pleasure collection of 25 brilliant books for 7-11 year olds - ideal for refreshing a classroom book corner, replenishing a school library, or brightening up your child’s bedroom. Includes bestselling titles by Michael Morpurgo, Hannah Gold, David Baddiel and Lauren Child.
The Cause
We invest in and support talented creatives from diverse backgrounds and experiences who want to make and publish children’s books. Many of the aspiring writers, illustrators and publishers who take part in our Pathways Into Children’s Publishing programmes face barriers to achieving their ambitions. This can be because of where they live, socio-economic challenges they face, or because their identities and cultures have been historically marginalised or excluded. Pathways programmes offer accessible, affordable, alternatives to higher educational routes into professional writing, illustration and publishing for children. Uniquely, Pathways are tutored and mentored by published writers and illustrators, professionals from a range of micro and global publishers, literary agents, and academic lecturers.
Where The Money Goes
- It costs an average £15,000 per place on a two-year Pathways programme
- The subsidy we offer per place is around 80% or £12,000 – which comes from a mix of grants, sponsorships and donations
- This means each Pathways mentee pays just 20% or £3,000 – to take part in this world-class, career-changing opportunity
- With 40 mentees per Pathways programme, we have to raise around £450,000 to subsidise those 40 places
- Because we want to provide 120 places on three Pathways programmes 2025-2027, our fundraising target is £1,350,000
With competition for grant funding higher than it's ever been in the UK, we rely on a mix of income to keep on doing what we're doing. If we raise about our £6,000 target, funds will continue to be used to support our work developing and delivering Pathways. If you want to find out more email [email protected]