The theme for this year’s Book Week celebrations was ‘Connect to reading’ and Gloucester Library received dozens of entries for its primary school competitions which required students to either draw their favourite book character or write about them.

Librarian Cathy Devereux said students had been split into two categories with those from year 3 down drawing book characters while those in years 4 to 6 had to write 25 words or less on who their favourite book personality was.

The winners were judged by Pippa Robinson and Patsy Murrell who said it was one of the hardest decisions they had ever had to make.

A total of 237 entries were received from each of the local primary schools - Gloucester, Barrington and Stratford public schools and St Joseph’s Primary - with 168 entries from kindergarten to year 3 and 69 entries in the senior category.

The winners were ‘Snugglepot and Cuddlepie’ by Barrington Public’s Summer Edwards in the drawing category and ‘Ian from Nips XI’ by Jack Wamsley from St Joseph’s in the writing.

The runners-up in the drawing were Erwin Armstrong from Stratford Public for his drawing of ‘The Cat in the Hat’ and Jackson Blanch from Gloucester Public for his picture of ‘Screaming Death, Whispering Death’.

In the writing competition the runners-up were Hayley Connell from Barrington Public for her piece on ‘James and the Giant Peach’ and Lilly Ryll from Stratford for her story on bushranger Fred Ward from ‘Riding with Thunderbolt’.

The winners will be presented with their prizes by mayor John Rosenbaum at a later date.