Nursery World - Deaf charity launches story competition on World Book Day

The Gruffalo author Julia Donaldson and Oscar-winning actress Rachel Shenton are using World Book Day to highlight the need to include more disabilities in children’s stories.

The pair said it was incredibly important that disabilities like deafness are featured in children’s books.

They have joined together to launch the National Deaf Children’s Society competition, open to the 18,000 deaf children in the UK aged 7-11, for a story including a deaf character.

Julia Donaldson, who is hard of hearing herself, has written a book featuring lip-reading called Freddie and the Fairy and when she was Children’s Laureate worked with a group of deaf children on What the Jackdaw Saw, a book about sign language.

The children’s author said, ‘I loved working on that story, and now I’m delighted to be involved in this writing competition. I can’t wait to see the stories that deaf children across the country come up with.’

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