Inspirational young writers
Inspiration strikes when we least expect it. The Fonetti app was inspired by a spark and a desire to boost literacy. Our goal is, and always will be, to nurture a love of reading in every child and give kids access to books globally. But we also want to inspire the next generation of writers and illustrators too.
The entries into our Young Authors Competition completely blew us away with the level of talent from so many young writers. Storytellers with a unique perspective on life, shining a light on our climate, the environment and the world through young eyes. Not only do these writers represent our readers, they also created stories that other children could relate to and would want to read.
It was our under six years old entrants, in particular, that really caught our attention. It’s no secret that children have natural creativity, curiosity and imagination on-tap. But being able to write a story and create something from a blank page to share with so many, at such a young age, is remarkable.
So, what is it that inspires young children to write and why do they enjoy it so much?
We asked winner Guru Kashyap, aged 6, author of ‘Greeny the Caring Tree’ to share with us what writing means to him.
Inspired by Fonetti
Firstly, Guru’s mum explains why she encouraged him to enter Fonetti’s Young Author competition:
‘From a very young age Guru displayed good imagination and storytelling ability. He had a highly developed vocabulary and an interest in the natural world. He would come up with the most amazing stories about cute animal characters that had a nice little message at the end, so I started to record some of them as he’d tell them for fun. As he enjoyed them, I thought they would resonate with other children too so we started to write them down together and he would illustrate them. This soon turned into a little hobby that has made him happy, given him satisfaction and hope that they’re making other children happy too.
When I saw Fonetti’s competition Guru was keen to enter and knew exactly what he wanted to write about…that’s how ‘Greeny the Caring Tree’ came to be.’
Writing through Guru’s eyes
We asked Guru how his stories make him feel, he explains
‘The stories make me feel very happy and proud. I’m always amazed at how well it turns out in the end. Some of my stories are silly but I like them too because they’re funny and make me laugh.’
Why do you like coming up with stories, Guru?
‘I like to come up with stories because it relaxes me and makes me happy. Also, I think I’m good at it. Whenever you’re good at something, you enjoy it and want to do more of it, isn’t it? I hope other children also like my story and that it makes them happy too.’
What got you into telling stories?
‘I tell stories to make my Mummy and Daddy happy. When my Mummy made one into a book, I was amazed at what I saw. It made me want to tell more stories and write more books.’
Why do you illustrate your stories?
‘I like drawing very much. I particularly like drawing animals. Most of my stories have cute animal characters. I want to show other children how I imagined them. I hope they’ll like these characters too. Maybe they can pretend to be these characters themselves when they do role play with their friends… That would be fun.’
At Fonetti we know how important stories are to childhood. They’re the soundtracks to magical years and wallpaper that take us to adventures in other worlds. Fonetti lets children take those adventures with them wherever they are, be it on long car journeys, flights and trains to lazy beach days, the top of mountains or wherever there’s a WIFI signal out in the wild. Fonetti’s given Guru’s imagination a platform – and he’s just one of our winning authors and the start of a new wave of talent that turn their scribbled ideas into stories they can share. Guru’s mum reflects ‘there’s an unrelenting pressure on kids to ‘achieve’ …We believe it’s important to cultivate good values, kindness, passion and imagination in our younger generation to hopefully make the world a better place.. Fonetti is definitely opening the door of opportunity and we look forward to the future.’
You can read Guru’s story and the other winning entries from our Young Authors’ Competition on Fonetti right now. And if this has inspired you to pick up a pen and write a story of your own – keep your eyes on our social media pages for news of our next writing competition.
