An Post launches competition, asking children to draw themselves as a character in their favourite story

Got a little book-worm who loves to read?

Chances are, they are going to love the competition An Post has just launched with Children's Books Ireland today. The Re-ImagineNation competition encourages children and families from all over Ireland to re-imagine themselves as a character in a favourite book. With lots of online creative workshops from children’s book illustrators and authors, children aged between 6 and 12 years are invited to get creative, and re-imagine themselves as a character inside their favourite story, and enter the competition by creating an artwork of themselves in a scene. Leading Irish illustrators and children’s book artists Fatti Burke, Jennifer Farley, Tarsila Krüse and Alan Nolan will be on hand to encourage creativity with weekly video workshops on Facebook showing the many ways children could re-imagine a story, as well as sharing tips and tricks and showing children the materials they work with. The competition closes 14^th August 2020 and will be judged by leading children’s book artists, An Post and Children’s Books Ireland. The winning artwork will be displayed on a post box in the child’s local area, and other competition prizes have been carefully chosen to help nurture the child’s creative development including a year’s supply of books and Art & Hobby vouchers to encourage children to continue reading, creating and using their imagination. Louise Cronje, An Post said: ‘Building on the success of the ImagineNation playbook developed last Easter when families were in lockdown and distributed to almost 250,000 homes we are delighted to launch the “Re-ImagineNation” competition for young children across Ireland. We are very pleased to partner once again with Children’s Books Ireland and some of Ireland’s best authors and illustrators. We look forward to seeing all of the artwork that the children create in the coming weeks.’ Elaina Ryan, CEO of Children’s Books Ireland said: ‘We are delighted to be working with An Post again on our shared ambitions of making every child a reader and encouraging children’s creativity. This competition and all the supporting artists’ workshops and activities puts an emphasis on visual storytelling and draws on the expertise of some of our most talented illustrators. We hope it will inspire and encourage children to read a book, whether that be an old favourite or a new discovery, and to imagine and create their own stories through pictures.’

How to enter

Simply follow the steps below to be in with a chance to win the great prizes!

1. Draw a scene from a book you love.
2. Include yourself as a character.
3. Tell us why this is your favourite book in 20 words.

• There are two age categories: 6 - 9 years and 10 - 12 years.
• Entries can be up to A3 size but A4 size is preferable.
• Applications to Re-ImagineNation are by post only.
• Multiple entries can be submitted in one envelope as long as there is an application form for each entry

The application form can be downloaded from here. The competition is part of the overall ImagineNation project which is an exciting partnership between An Post and Children’s Books Ireland which promotes the joy of reading and creating to children all over Ireland. The #ImagineNation playbook, bringing together leading Irish authors and illustrators, encourages children to read, draw and create and has been delivered to nearly 250,000 children and their families in homes, family hubs, direct provision centres, children’s hospitals and through other children’s charities all over Ireland.