Pupil Competitions

Each year we run several competitions to encourage children to read and repsond to the selected Spark! books.

You can find information relating to our main competitions below.

What can you and your school win?

There are prizes for the best ones in each category as well as a host of smaller prizes for our runners up.

Winners’ work may be shown or read during our online award ceremony and/or hosted on our website and social media accounts.

Main Spark! competition

Our main competition is now open!

What do you have to do?

Choose your favourite shortlisted book in a category and create your own unique response.

There will be three types of entries for each age category - but be as creative as you like to capture your personal response to the book!

Written

You could write:

A new ‘blurb’ to publish on the book cover
The opening chapter of a sequel
A diary as one of the characters
A postcard to send to a friend explaining why you like this book
A new adventure for one of the characters
A play script for an exciting part of the story
A TV interview with characters from the book
An advert to tell more pupils in school to read your favourite book
A poem inspired by the book or its themes
Or another idea of your own

Multimedia

You could:

Make a short film advertising the book or even acting out your favourite scene
Create your own blog, vlog or website - as yourself or a character
Design a poster that the authors might use to sell the book
Turn your story into a graphic novel or photo story
Compose a piece of music to be used as a soundtrack for the book
Learn to sign part of your book and film yourself (and maybe your friends!)
Or another idea of your own - use your IT skills to make a unique response!

Artwork

You could:

Create a significant object from the book in any media you like - clay, plasticine, junk modelling...
Produce a storyboard or picture of your favourite part of the story
Recreate an illustration using your crafting skills... sewing, crochet, collage...
Create a story box or small world for one of the places in your book
Or another idea

How can you enter?

Entries will be by year group: Early Years, Years 1-2, Years 3-4 and Years 5-6 and Years 7+.

All entries must be received by 02 June 2025. Multimedia entries should be submitted via a link or attached file (clearly labelled). 3D artwork should be photographed for submission.

Competition entries should be sent, by email, to competitions@sparkbookawards.co.uk.

Please make sure you include the following information:

The name of the pupil
The name of their school
The year group of the pupil
The category of the entry (artwork, written, multimedia)

Please note we are not able to accept whole class or year group entries from schools. Instead, we encourage teachers to choose the best entries from your school in each age category and submit these only.

Win a Spark! trophy of your own!

Plus a book token to buy the books of your choice and have your name announced at our online award ceremony as your work is shown.

"I’m hugely impressed by the amount of time and effort that’s gone into this. As a former teacher myself, I honestly don’t know how you did it! And the way you involve the children and they receive awards and just generally expand their love of books through other art forms is amazing."

KAREN SWANN

Spark! poetry competition - now closed but will return for the 2025-26 award cycle!

You may not have even started reading the books for this year’s Spark! Book Awards but you can still get involved in our first competition of the year.

Just use the books in one chosen category to inspire a piece of poetry.

You could:

Use the cover of one of the books, to inspire a poem that tells a story, develops a description or creates a mood.
Take the title of one book and use it as the basis for your poem - you don’t need to have read the book, just let the title fire your imagination.
Something completely different (but related to our shortlisted books).

The choice is yours - you do not have to have read any of the books!

Entries will be judged in the following categories, with prizes for the winning entries and runners up - plus the chance to record your poem for everyone to see on our website and/or our winner’s ceremony in June.

Early years (nursery and reception)
KS1
Lower KS2
Upper KS2
KS3

How to enter

Competition entries should be sent, by email, to competitions@sparkbookawards.co.uk. Please make sure you include the following information:

The name of the pupil
The name of their school
The year group of the pupil

Please note that we cannot accept mass entries from schools and these will not be considered for prizes. We recommend schools hold their own internal competition and only send a small selection for consideration.

Closing date: 07 March 2025

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