New children's laureates to inspire love of reading

THE Children's Laureate Wales and Bardd Plant Cymru for the next two years have been announced.

- IAN LEWIS

Nicola Davies and Siôn Tomos Owen are the writers about to undertake the national roles for 2025-27.

They follow in the footsteps of Alex Wharton and Nia Morais, who were appointed in 2023.

Bardd Plant Cymru and Children's Laureate Wales are ambassadorial roles that aim to inspire the children of Wales through literature.

The projects aim to expand children's and young people's access to literature, contributing to improved wellbeing, increasing enjoyment of literature and empowering children and young people through creativity.

The authors run workshops in various locations including schools, libraries, hubs, centres, and festivals; writing commissioned poems to mark special occasions; delivering projects with groups of children and young people throughout Wales; creating online resources; and championing the voices of Wales' children and young people nationally and internationally.

They are independent of each other but are sister schemes that contribute towards raising a healthier, more creative and more diverse generation of readers and writers across Wales.

Abergavenny-based Nicola began her career as a biologist and studied geese, bats and whales in the wild.

She worked as a presenter for the BBC Natural History Unit on programmes such as The Really Wild Show, before becoming an author.