Celebrating a special cover
Discover how the winning artwork was chosen and what else caught our attention.
At the end of October we challenged our readers to pick up their pens, paints and pencils and have a go at creating our festive front cover. We were looking for a design that was bright, fun and captured the excitement of the season – and you didn’t disappoint us. We received more than 800 entries, featuring a bold and beautiful array of colours, characters and compositions.
The standard of all the entries was incredibly high, so we were relieved to have an expert on hand to help us decide which of them should win. On 28 November, we were joined by award-winning author and illustrator Rob Biddulph, who was a recent winner at The Week Junior Book Awards for the cover of his book Peanut Jones and the Twelve Portals.
We looked at every single one of the entries and, in the end, it was 10-year-old Sanna’s snowman that stood out. Her simple but striking composition, cute cut-out characters and bright blue background all combined to create a joyful and eye-catching cover. The judges especially liked the little dog – if you look closely you’ll see he has a snowflake on his tongue.
Among all the entries, it was this carefully crafted artwork that kept pulling the judges back for another look. Sanna’s prize-winning picture will be framed and delivered to her in the new year. Sanna told us, “I love it when it snows and I wanted to create a picture that really represents Christmas, so I thought a Christmas snowman would look really nice.”
The judges also singled out two entries to be highly commended. Finn’s snowy scene particularly impressed Rob, while Daisy’s colourful Christmas collage was also a close contender. Well done to both.
Thank you to everyone who entered, we really enjoyed seeing all your amazing creations.