Bocas Lit Fest (BFL) recently donated 10 copies of Dragonzilla’s Short Story Challenge My Covid Stories Story Book 10 to Let’s Read TT, an NGO promoting early literacy in Trinidad and Tobago. Over the years, BLF has been partnering with Let’s Read TT to foster a love of books and a stronger reading culture among young children.
Dragonzilla’s Short Story Challenge My Covid Stories Story Book 10 is the latest addition to a series of illustrated children’s books written by children aged 5 to 12 on the NGC Bocas Children’s Storytelling Caravan launched in 2011. Since then BLF has worked with hundreds of children throughout Trinidad and Tobago to create the Children Festival Book series 1 to 10.
When the COVID-19 lockdown prevented the Storytelling Caravan from physically working with children, the Drazonzilla’s Short Story Challenge was created- resulting in scores of submissions.
Dragonzilla’s Short Story Challenge My Covid Stories Story Book 10 features the writings of the winners and finalists in the 5-8 and the 9-12 age groups. These original stories, written by children cross over several genres- some exploring pandemic life through fantasy and others with stark realism. They give a glimpse into the emotions and life changing experiences of 2020 and 2021 by brilliant young writers – creating an invaluable record for future generations as well as a treasure trove of entertaining stories written for children, by children.
This donation will enable Let’s Read TT to continue their ongoing objective to “partner with public primary schools to restore their library spaces so that children have consistent access to a diverse selection of high quality local and international books that gets them excited about reading.” Suzette Cadiz, co-founder of Read Away TT received the books on behalf of the NGO. She noted, “The students and teachers we work with always look forward to local books with characters and stories that focus on their own experiences. These books will be a wonderful addition to the primary school libraries we support.” BLF’s newly appointed Children’s Programme Manager, Melvina Hazard noted the importance of partnerships with Let’s Read TT. “The Storytelling Caravan empowers children to tell their own stories as a collective with imagination under the guidance of experienced storytellers. It nurtures not only an appreciation of literature and self-expression, but also empowers them with the practical and technical tools to envision a future career as professional, published writers. We cannot emphasise enough the importance of our children writers directly inspiring young readers and potential writers. We look forward to continuing the Storytelling Caravan in 2023, working towards our objectives of developing a new generation of TT writers.”
The stories from the NGC Bocas Storytelling Caravan have been converted into ‘read aloud’ and animated videos; and are available on demand for free on Youtube at www.storytime.bocaslitfest.com/
