Children For Change Young Writers Competition

Pop Up Projects & The Week Junior have joined forces to transform lives through literature.

Children For Change has teamed up with one of the UK’s leading current affairs magazines for young people, The Week Junior, for the Children For Change national writing competition. Ten young writers aged 8 to 12 will win the chance to have their story or poem included in this world-changing collection.

To find out more and submit entries visit: pop-up.org.uk/childrenforchange. The closing date is on Friday 12th July at 3pm.

What is Children for Change?

Children For Change is a brand new collection of stories, illustrations and facts inspiring young readers to ‘take an action’ – big or small, local or global – to protect our environments. Launching on October 7th as part of UN World Habitat Day, this amazing ebook anthology will be FREE to download for every child and in every Primary School in the UK. 

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Children For Change is being published by Pop Up Projects CIC. Dylan Calder, Director of Pop Up Projects, comments “As a non-profit national literature agency we are on a mission to transform lives through literature. We hope this FREE ebook will inspire children to start thinking about how they can play a part, no matter how small, in tackling climate change.”

Over 60 of the UK’s favourite children’s writers and illustrators are contributing to Children For Change, including: Creator of Tom Gates, Liz Pichon; multi award-winning author of Boy Everywhere, AM Dassu; The Gruffalo illustrator, Axel Scheffler; bestselling authors of the Dragon Realm series, Katie & Kevin Tsang; Draw with Rob creator, Rob Biddulph; former Blue Peter presenter and author of the Cookie series, Konnie Huq; Young Bond author, Charlie Higson.

Inspiring a greener and healthier future

Children For Change’s editor, the broadcaster and passionate environmentalist, Konnie Huq says "I truly believe that children are the key to changing the future. We hope that by giving them inspiration we can help them make positive changes and decisions to build a greener and healthier future for our planet.” Our judges – Konnie Huq, Author and Broadcaster, Vanessa Harriss, Editor of The Week Junior, and Dylan Calder, Director of Pop Up Projects.

Inspire your child to get involved

The ten winners will see their story or poem published in this world-changing collection. The original stories or poems should inspire other children to think about the things they can do to help the planet. Read on to find out how to enter. 

★ If it is a story, it needs to be a fictional story – something imagined and created – so, not an essay, or an article. It needs to be original – it could be set in the real world, or it could be set in an imaginary place. It could have realistic people, make-believe characters, or even talking animals. It just has to do ONE thing: it has to help the reader understand something they can do to make the world a better, greener, healthier place.

★ If it is a poem. A poem doesn’t have to be fictional (though it can be). The poem can be more personal, a way to express feelings about the world you know and love, and what people need to do to make things better. It doesn’t need to rhyme (although it can if you want it to) – and there’s no rule about how you should structure it.

Two important considerations

★ It needs to inspire another reader to do something – it could be something they can do personally, like changing a habit or behaviour. Or something they could encourage their family, community or school to do. It could be something others could do, like leaders or governments – or something the whole world should do! 

★ It needs to be no longer than 500 words – max

Entrants can submit their writing by visiting pop-up.org.uk/childrenforchange. There you will also find guidelines, terms and conditions plus writing tips. 

The closing date is on Friday 12th July at 3pm.

Children For Change is funded by a National Lottery Project Grant from Arts Council England.