BookTrust teams up with Waterstones Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell and World Book Day for special #PassThePen
Published on: 24 January 2022
#PassThePen is Cressida Cowell's initiative to promote emerging authors and illustrators of colour - and there will be a special World Book Day edition this year.
BookTrust has teamed up with Waterstones Children's Laureate Cressida Cowell and World Book Day 2022 for a very special edition of #PassThePen.
#PassThePen is an initiative launched by Cressida Cowell and BookTrust Represents in 2020 to support and promote emerging creators of colour.
It sees top authors and illustrators handing over their social media accounts to rising stars, giving them the chance to talk about their work and inspirations.
For the special edition, World Book Day legacy authors and illustrators of the last 25 years will be paired with up-and-coming writers and illustrators of colour to champion new voices and help give all children the chance to read a range of books that reflect them and their wider communities.
During the celebrations, the following pairs will be taking part:
- Sharna Jackson will pass the pen to Maisie Chan
- Sita Brahmachari will pass the pen to Lily Dyu
- Francesca Simon will pass the pen to Burhana Islam
- Cressida Cowell will pass the pen to Nizrana Farook
- Ben Bailey-Smith will pass the pen to Alex Wharton
- Dapo Adeola will pass the pen to Akhran Girmay
- Nathan Bryon will pass the pen to Alex Falase-Koya
- Lydia Monks will pass the pen to Krina Patel-Sage
- Muhammad Khan will pass the pen to Clare Weze
- Holly Smale will pass the pen to Sabine Adeyinka
'Children need access to a diverse range of stories'
Photo: David Bebber
Jill Coleman, Director of Children's Books at BookTrust, said: 'I am so pleased that #PassThePen is back as part of World Book Day 2022. The campaign allows the future of the literary world a unique opportunity to tell their stories and plays an important role in championing creators of colour.
'Children need to have access to a diverse range of books and stories. It is through platforms like this and the support that we offer to writers and illustrators of colour that BookTrust hopes to create fair and equal opportunities across the industry for everyone.
'I want to say a huge thank you to all those who have taken part in #PassThePen this year - without you, these stories may have gone unheard.'
BookTrust will also be supporting World Book Day's ambition to ensure more children have the opportunity to own a book by distributing 90,000 £1 book tokens through Bookstart co-ordinators across the country.
Opportunities to celebrate and read together
Elsewhere during the celebrations, a very special World Book Day birthday event will be live-streamed on Monday, 28 February in association with the Roald Dahl Story Company, Royal Shakespeare Company, Lloyd Webber Theatres and Penguin Random House.
A number of World Book Day £1 book authors, including Cressida Cowell will be joined by the cast of Matilda the Musical for a celebration of reading, which will be available to watch on the World Book Day website.
World Book Day's CEO Cassie Chadderton said: 'This milestone anniversary is an important moment for the charity to reflect on the last 25 years and look forward to the future. We will be engaging with more children than ever to promote reading for pleasure.
'There are still 400,000 children in the UK who don't have a book of their own, so our focus is to ensure as many children as possible receive a World Book Day £1 book this year, alongside providing lots of opportunities for everyone to celebrate and read together.'
