Little Troopers, has launched a national story writing competition for military children as part of a month-long celebration featuring various activities and events called ‘September Stories’.
Open to military children aged 8 -14, the theme of the story competition is ‘my military life’ and children are encouraged to write a story that in some way reflects on or relates to their day-to-day experiences of being a military child.
All entries will be judged by a panel including published children’s authors, Donna David and Tom Palmer. The winning story will be professionally illustrated and published in e-book format on the Little Troopers Treasures free story-recording app*. Through the app, other military children can read the winning stories and share them with their grown-ups.
Louise, Founder of the charity, comments: “Research shows that reading has a huge positive impact on children’s wellbeing and we know that sharing stories is particularly important to military families. That’s why four years ago we launched the Little Troopers Treasures initiative to keep children and their parents connected, even when they are miles apart and it’s also why we are dedicating a whole month to celebrating stories and encouraging military children to get reading and writing.”
Entries into the September Stories competition should be between 200 and 500 words and can be written in prose or rhyming verse. The deadline for entry is on 14th October. For more information click here.
Other September Stories activities
The story competition is just one way that military children can get involved in Little Troopers’ September Stories celebrations.
The charity is also encouraging children to take part in their own sponsored read-a-thon challenge. Children of 
any age can take part by downloading the read-a-thon fundraising pack and choosing from a list of fun challenges including reading every day for one hour, reading for four hours straight, or even challenging themselves to build a book tower and read as many books as they are tall! – a great activity for toddlers and pre-schoolers.
Little Troopers will also be running a weekly giveaway for families to win a tablet so that more children can benefit from using the Little Troopers Treasures app at home when their serving parent is working away.
Louise adds “Whether you take part in the read-a-thon challenge or submit an entry into our story competition, we hope that lots of military children take part and enjoy getting involved. We’re particularly excited about the story competition. It’s going to be so special for one of the books on the Little Troopers Treasures app to be written by a real little trooper and we can’t wait to read the entries!”
* Little Troopers Treasures was launched four years ago to help military children stay connected to their parents during periods of separation. Through the app, the serving person can choose a book and record a video. As the video plays the pages turn in synchronisation allowing the children to see the story and hear their parents voice. The app has a great range of much-loved classics including Judith Kerr’s Mog books, Michael Bond’s Paddington, Emma Chichester-Clark’s Blue Kangaroo as well as stories from Bing. Since its launch more than 8,000 stories have been recorded and shared by families.
