Amazon has today announced that two additional judges, Taffy Thomas MBE and children’s TV presenter Cerrie Burnell, will join the judging panel in the search for a new young children’s classic inspired by Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. The panel of judges also includes illustrator Ian Beck, last year’s competition winner Lucy Banks and members of the Amazon book team.
As the UK’s first Storytelling laureate, Taffy was honoured for his services to storytelling in 2009. Since then, he has toured nationally and internationally, appearing at arts and storytelling festivals in countries including the UK, America and Norway. He is a patron of the Society for Storytelling and is the artistic director of Talesin Trust, the Northern Centre for Storytelling in Grasmere. Considered the nation’s foremost traditional storyteller for his repertoire of over 300 stories collected from traditional oral sources, Taffy will lend his expertise to the judging panel.
“I am incredibly excited to be on this year’s judging panel for the search for a modern-day take on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol,” said Taffy. “The tale has resonated with readers and audiences for nearly two centuries and a newly inspired version for children is a fantastic idea to continue to spread the tale’s message of generosity and kindness among families this Christmas.”
Joining Taffy on this year’s panel of judges is children’s author Cerrie Burnell, who was most recently a presenter on CBeebies. Author of multiple children’s books including the Harper series, Fairy Magic, Snowflakes, Ballet Dreams and Mermaid, Cerrie writes books that celebrate diversity and making a difference.
“I cannot wait to start reading this year’s batch of stories,” said Cerrie. “As a children’s author myself, I love a good read and am keen to see the stories the British public dreams up and—the idea of helping to find the next big British children’s author is just an added bonus!”
The nationwide writing competition is now open to all adult UK residents, with the winning story to be professionally illustrated by children’s book illustrator, Ian Beck. Aspiring authors can submit their stories by emailing their entries to christmasonkindle@amazon.co.uk.
The winning author will receive a £2,000 Amazon.co.uk Gift Card and a top-of-the-range Fire tablet. Published through Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), the winning story will be available in both print and digital formats in the run up to Christmas and made available to an audience of millions of readers around the world with the Kindle app for iOS and Android or using any Kindle or Fire tablet.
“Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is a memorable story for all, from its unforgettable characters, to its message to readers and fantastic storytelling,” said Alessio Santarelli, Director of Kindle Content EU, Amazon. “We look forward to seeing how the story will be reimagined and brought to life for the modern reader this festive season.”
UK-based authors should submit their A Christmas Carol inspired children’s stories of 1,000 words or less by 7 November for a chance to be professionally illustrated and made available on the Kindle store around the world this festive season.
Kindle Direct Publishing is Amazon’s independent publishing programme, which enables authors to retain their copyrights, keep control, distribute globally, and earn royalties of up to 70%. The winning book will be enrolled into KDP Select, meaning that it will be available through Kindle Unlimited.
The competition is now open for entries. For more information and to enter, writers can visit www.amazon.co.uk/christmasonkindle.
