Book Creator competition – winners revealed!

Our Book Creator competition ran from October 2019 to January 2020. We had an amazing variety of entrants on the theme of 'A Better Future', and our panel of judges went through two rounds of rigorous judging to come up with the winners. It was a very close thing in the end!

Thank you to Jonathan Nalder, Josephine Kulandairaj, Alberto Valdes, Pana Asavavatana, Bronwyn Desjardins and Michael Cohen for taking the time to help us with this competition.

Winner: Age 4 - 11

Che schianto di futuro!

by Classe 5, Scuola Primaria "G.Carducci" di Gallio

Winner: Age 12 - 18

A Better Future

by Nesho Bonchev High School, Bulgaria

The aptly named A Better Future is the work of 10 students at Nesho Bonchev High School, in Panagyurishte - central Bulgaria.

The book was submitted by Silviya Bobekova, an English teacher at this highly innovative secondary school, where great emphasis is given to flipped learning and 21st century skills.

Her students had previously used Book Creator online to create a town guide but were skeptical about entering the competition at first. Silviya suggested they try brainstorming ideas as a group (which they did using answergarden.ch) and soon came up with topics covering education, communication, food, health, transport, and environment.

They then divided into pairs and worked on these topics, using tools they were familiar with to appsmash content for their book. Once they'd finished working on their individual pages, the book was combined into one book.

Our judges said:

"Lovely cover. I like how the global goals have been broken down into groups and how the text colours match the global goal square colours."

"This book is a great example of how to explain the Sustainable Development Goals and how they support a better future - and the class has worked together really well to add audio, video and text. Wonderful work everyone!"

"Simply Amazing!"

Special mention goes to Stefani Navushtanova (age 16) who edited the book, Alexandra Maznekova (16) who was responsible for design, and Hristo Krastev (14) and Mariya Gurbeshlieva who created the videos.

They also win Chromebook tablets and other prizes for their school. The Book Creator upgrades will be particularly useful as they prepare to use it for what Silviya calls "autonomous teaching and learning" whilst schools are closed because of coronavirus.

Runner up: Age 4 - 11

Dreaded Dry Days

by Lily Amato, age 9, Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Primary School, Australia

Submitted by Nicole Meehan, of Earlwood in New South Wales, Australia. 9-year-old Lily Amato uses video, images, newspaper clippings and her own original poetry to tell the story of the impact of drought on farmers and rural communities in Australia. She leaves us with a prescient message: "try not to waste water"!

Our judges said:

"Lily - thanks for your great book. It is clear you have spent a large amount of time designing and writing it, and the use of videos, images and text was very well done and supports the theme brilliantly."

"This book is personal, creative, and uses artwork and media effectively. Well done!"

"An original concept. Good layout with a contents pages included. Great link to science and evidence."

Lily's school, along with all our runners-up, will receive Book Creator swag and 5 premium Book Creator licenses for teachers. Congratulations!

Runner up: Age 4 - 11

My Peace Crane

by Leah Marion, age 10, Edgewater Elementary School, Canada

This book was submitted by Daphne Amster, from Quebec, Canada. My Peace Crane was written by Leah, who was inspired to write her book based on a true story.

Students in their class exchanged origami peace cranes with students at a school in Sierra Leone, Africa. The exchange led them to become pen pals and helped foster an online friendship via classroom Twitter accounts and through video conferencing.

This experience allowed the students to better understand how education is not the same worldwide. In line with Sustainable Development Goal #4, the students wanted to work towards a goal of improving the quality education for all. They organized and ran a school wide ‘Read-a-Thon’ raising over $1,300, which was donated to partners at We Yone Child Foundation.

Leah's story features pictures of the origami peace cranes carrying messages of inspiration, along with pictures of the children who attend the We Yone Child Foundation school (holding those same peace cranes Leah and her classmates created).

The judges said:

"Amazing use of storytelling, multimedia, and content! Love how the 'About the Author' page is an embedded Adobe Spark Post."

"Such an uplifting and original story with great illustrations."

"What a wonderful story Leah, where you have made the Crane's story come to life. Excellent storytelling and use of multimedia make this a very memorable book - great achievement!"

"I love that this story is written from the perspective of the peace crane, and is inspired by your own experience of sending peace cranes. What a lovely and creative way to share your message. I also love how you chose to use a variety of multimedia tools as well as integrate other apps into your book. Well done!"

Interesting point of information - Daphne Amster's student Kieran Parker-Rumbolt also came third in our comic competition back in 2016!

Runner up: Age 12 - 18

Know Disaster, No Disaster (Ready Set Safe)

by Madelaine Quiben, Grade 10, Pangasinan National High School, Philippines

Submitted by Marianne Soriano, from Pangasinan in the Philippines. 10th grade student Madelaine authored an extremely creative comic book focusing on raising awareness about what to do in an earthquake. This has real practical value given the Philippines is located on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" and experiences strong earthquakes every year!

The protagonist in Marianne's book (Evan) didn't pay attention when his teacher was explaining how to react to an earthquake and learnt his lesson the hard way!

The judges said:

"Love the variety of media and sequence of the story."

"Clever title. Great illustrations and animations. The story illustrates an important safety measure. Would love to have heard you record some audio too."

"This book has a wonderful visual style and really shows the work that was put into making its bitmoji graphics and multimedia. The story is also well told - and is sure to inspire students to listen better in the future!"

Runner up: Age 12 - 18

Take Care of the World

by Hayat Tekoğlu, age 14, Aydın Ticaret Borsası Bilim ve Sanat Merkezi in Turkey

Submitted by English teacher Zehra Ateş, this book is about the issues facing the world in the past, present and future through the eyes of a retired scientist.The author is a 9th grade student called Hayat Tekoğlu who is passionate about science, technology and art - a beautiful combination in a book like this! She writes beautifully, especially when you consider English isn't her first language.

This book was so close to winning, it was a very narrow decision.

Our judges said:

"Great cover! This is a unique story and I found it engaging to read. I like the view of looking at what we did right to fix things to make a better future. An original and delightful piece. Would have loved to see multimedia included."

"Hayat this is a very well written book - it is obvious you have spent a lot of time writing the story as well as illustrating it, and it fits brilliantly with the better future theme. Keep up the great work!"

Honorable mentions

There are two books that deserve particular mention. The first is Trouble in Paradise, submitted by Ellen Buith from Auckland, New Zealand. This was unlike any other book submitted, it really is very special.

Ellen works with students with Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties (PMLD) and created a book that involves a multi-sensory experience for her students. She tells a story whilst giving students objects to touch, look and listen to, things to smell and even to taste. She helped them understand some of the environmental challenges the world faces by listening to sea sounds, touching turtles, seaweed, plastic, smelling sunscreen and many more things. A really powerful book.

The second is from the brilliant 4th grade student Ava Smith (age 9) from Massachussets, USA. Ava is deaf and uses American Sign Language (ASL) as her primary way of communicating. She is very passionate about helping save planet Earth!

Her book is called Help The World. She created this book independently and is rightly very proud of the work she has done. Thank you to Danny Ferro, from the Children Center for Communication, for submitting this book.

View all the finalists

Thank you so much to everyone for entering our competition, you all did a great job.

You can see all 25 finalists in the library below - some really great entrants. Or you can also view all of the 110 entrants here!