Nursery World - Children’s Laureate

New children’s laureate Cressida Cowell has unveiled her ‘to-do list’ while in the role. Meredith Jones Russell reports

The author of the Emily Brown picture books, Cressida Cowell, has been named the new children’s laureate for 2019-21. Ms Cowell, who wrote and illustrated the How to Train Your Dragonand Wizard of Once series, has become the 11th holder of the title of children’s laureate since the title was first awarded in 1999.

At the presentation of the silver laureate medal by outgoing laureate Lauren Child, at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, Ms Cowell unveiled her charter, or ‘to-do list’, advocating the right of every child to:

Ms Cowell also spoke about her desire to make school libraries statutory, and for all public libraries and librarians to be funded properly. She argued for more space to be made on the curriculum to develop children’s creative intelligence, highlighting the value of creativity to the UK economy.

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