Winners of the Book Creator Poetry Competition revealed!

In April we ran a poetry competition to celebrate National Poetry Month. We had over 100 entrants from around the world, showcasing amazing poetry and book design skills.

Our judges, Matthew Friday and Eric Curts have chosen their top 3 from a shortlist of 10 in each age category. Without further ado, let's reveal the winners!

Age 4-11

For this age group, we asked teachers to submit a collaborative book, showcasing 5 styles of poetry. Making the book collaborative meant that even if some students aren't great poetry writers, they can still support the creative process by being the illustrator/editor/project manager.

1st place: 
When I Grow Up

by Ms. Caraballo's Morning Class. Age: 9-10

Noris Caraballo is a 4th grade teacher at Southside Elementary, which is part of Cleveland ISD in Texas, USA. This is what she said about her entry:

"As the end of the year is fast approaching, our class decided to think about what we want to be when we grow up. This allowed the students to reflect on their future and how much they have to accomplish to be what they want. It's about dreaming big and having that goal in mind.

"Students learned five different styles of poetry and it was their choice to do the one they feel identify with. Our class is a dual-language class (one poem was translated from the Spanish language) with economically disadvantaged students. Writing these poems gave them the opportunity to think about their future beyond Southside Elementary walls.

"It’s so exciting to win the Book Creator poetry competition. My class and I are honored to be competing alongside such amazing books and authors.  I’m so proud of my students, their hard work, and their commitment to learning and being better every single day. Way to go my sweet and smart Southside morning class!"

My fourth grade class already has their poetry book, and we are super excited about it. Thanks to @BookCreatorApp for giving me the opportunity to help my students grow as readers and writers! And thanks to my sweet students for always giving the best of themselves and making me pic.twitter.com/YumK2OhSZ4

— Noris Caraballo (@noriscm) October 20, 2023

Matthew Friday: 
"I loved this collection. I enjoyed how it stuck to one theme and gave every child an equal chance to express their ideas about their future. The poems were diverse, engaging and filled with joy. Reading them I got a sense that the future looks bright with the hopes of these children. I thought it was especially good that every single student was represented both in words and in film, giving poetry its fullest range of expression and the student the widest experience of communication. This poetry collection is the embodiment of literary equity."

Eric Curts:
"This is a wonderful collection of poems that communicate the students’ visions for their futures. The poems are written in a variety of styles, and displayed in a layout that is colorful and engaging. It was great to see and hear each student read their poems and bring them to life!"

2nd place: 
A World Full of Poetry

by Mrs Farrant's Orangutan Class

Orangutan class is a Year 5 class from Katherine Semar Junior School, Saffron Walden, Essex (UK) and consists of 31 pupils age 9-10 (15 boys and 16 girls). Their teacher, Abbey Farrant, said this:

"The class spent a week of English lessons reading, performing and writing poems. All 31 pupils loved it and wanted to publish so I saw this as a great opportunity for them. We recently finished a space topic in Science so wanted to link our front cover to this as our poems are about so many different aspects of the world, hence the title. We are also studying climate change in Geography at the moment so linked some poems to this.

"We looked at A-Z poems in a menu style which were a lot of fun writing. For the Breathless poems pupils ran on the spot in the classroom and discussed how their bodies felt before writing these great poems. Some pupils have used Book Creator before but we spent some time as a class learning the software and made the book together.

"Each pupil choose 1 poem they wanted to type up. They then drew their own illustrations to go alongside their poem which we imported into the book. Each child designed their page and had a lot of fun! A mixture of apps/websites were used including Canva, Giphy, Publisher, Remove.bg, ChatterPix Kids as well as using the power of AI on 'I can't draw' on Padlet (we found out about this tool when reading Book Creator's blog).

"The class wanted a funny way to introduce themselves so we used AI to create a picture of a classroom of Orangutan's waving! The pupils previously recorded a song in a music lesson which they wrote lyrics for. They used the first verse on the introduction page and sang and recorded it. This was a lot of fun and took a few takes to get right!

"Lots of pupils wanted to perform their poems so used iPads and the record function on Book Creator. It was lovely hearing them read with such passion and expression. As a class we have had so much fun creating this book and the children said they have learnt so much. Whether it be how to layer objects, remove the background from an image, import stickers of Gifs, change fonts, add audio, add a PDF, add pages in the book, move pages, use Canva or other applications, it has been so much fun and the children are so proud of their hard work, as am I."

Matthew Friday: 
"This collection stands out for the rich content, exploration of forms and sheer joy of writing. The book clearly represents a lot of work by the students (and teachers). I particularly liked the poems responding to the concept of ‘The Door’, as this provided such a variety of responses and ideas."

Eric Curts:
"The poems were very well written with lots of creativity and imagination. It was great to hear the poems read by each student, especially with how much expression they put into their readings. The hand-drawn illustrations added a lot to each poem, as well as the wide variety of multimedia."

3rd place: 
Summer Poetry

by 5B at St. Andrew's Elementary

This book was submitted by Megan Fleming, a Grade 5 Teacher from St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, in Canada. She says:

"We had just finished our poetry unit when I saw this competition. I have used Book Creator in my classroom before and the students really enjoyed it. I thought it would be a great project for their final assessment on poetry.

"We came up with the topic of Summer as a class and discussed different things we would see/do in the Summer. Students got to choose what type of poem they wanted to write and got to illustrate a picture to go with it if they wished.

"After students had their poems completed they recorded themselves reading them. Our school is very diverse and we have students who speak many different languages. I thought it would be a nice idea to have those students also record their poem in their first language!"

Matthew Friday: 
"What immediately stood out to me was how this collection truly honored poetry in all the languages the students speak. So often in English speaking countries schools focus on English as the means of written and verbal expression. However, given the diversity of the school and the fact that poetry is universal to all cultures, this collection gave the students a chance to communicate in the most authentic and truthful way possible: using their Mother Tongues."

Eric Curts:
"I really appreciated hearing the poems read in the students’ first languages as well as in English. It brought wonderful life to the poems, demonstrated how poetry transcends language, and is a testimony to the hard work of these students."

Special mentions:

• Poetry (A collaborative book on poems) - The layout and design was creative and engaging, especially the snail poem with the words in the shape of a snail. The poems were very well read with such great expression and pacing! I only wish there had been more poems in the collection, and more original illustrations. (Eric Curts)
• Our Super Cool Poetry Book - This is an excellent collection of poems from students so young! I appreciated the variety of imagery including digital drawings, hard drawings, photos, clipart, and more. (Eric Curts)
• Fantastic, Fun, Funny and For-You - This collection of poetry was immediately engaging with the first poem, The Auspicious Alsdorfs. That serious poem hooked me and I was enthralled, delighted, surprised and entertained throughout. (Matthew Friday)