The new Children’s Laureate said today she wants to make the “magic” of reading “available to everyone” as she started her two-year tenure.
Cressida Cowell, who wrote the How To Train Your Dragon series, follows in the footsteps of Quentin Blake, Malorie Blackman and War Horse author Michael Morpurgo.
Her books about the young Viking Hiccup and his dragon Toothless were inspired by summers spent as a child on an isolated Scottish island and have been made into a billion-dollar DreamWorks film series and a TV programme.
At a ceremony at Shakespeare’s Globe, Cowell unveiled a “to-do list”, including ensuring children see themselves reflected in books and campaigning for funding for libraries.
The author, who lives in Hammersmith, said: “It really is impossible for a child to become a reader for the joy of it if their parents or carers can’t afford books, they don’t go to a public library and their primary school hasn’t got a library.
“So I’m going to be campaigning that school libraries ought to be statutory, along with making the argument that public libraries and librarians are still relevant in the modern world, and we ought to be funding them properly.”
Cowell was given the laureate’s medal at the ceremony by the outgoing holder, Charlie and Lola author Lauren Child.
She added: “Books and reading are magic and this magic must be available to absolutely everyone ... Practical magic, empathy and creative intelligence is the plan.”
