Six children were invited to attend the Children’s Laureate announcement event on 9 June 2009 as a prize for winning two competitions.

Natasha Chudasama (10), Lucy Parkinson (12) and Tom Warren (12) were all winners of the Children’s Laureate competition, which involved writing a short piece stating who should be the next Children’s Laureate and why

Emilia Coleman, Nicola Nightingale and Tariq Uwakwe were winners of a competition in the Times newspaper.

All six children enjoyed the chance to interview Anthony Browne at the announcement event.

Lucy has written a great description of the event:

"I woke up very early on Tuesday 9th June when Mum came into my room at 5:15am. I quickly ate, showered and changed into my clothes for the day. We were soon on our way to London. I read a book for a while, but I couldn’t concentrate as my thoughts were on other things – who would be the new Children’s Laureate and what would I ask them? – so I looked out of the window for the rest of the journey.

When we arrived in London, I could hardly contain my excitement as I saw the London Eye and the Gherkin from my window. Mum and I exited the train at Waterloo station and went down the stairs to the Underground. We followed crowds of people heading towards the Northern Line but we couldn’t get the first train as it was literally packed with people! It was lucky we had a lot of time on our hands. The train rumbled into Tottenham Court Road Station less than 5 minutes later but, once there, we found Centrepoint nowhere in sight. Mum suddenly pointed behind me and I looked up… it was massive!

We entered Centrepoint at about 9:30am – 45 minutes early! We waited there, but it wasn’t boring, as we played ‘Guess the celebrity coming up the stairs!’ Michael Rosen appeared at about 10:00am and of course, we both knew who he was straight away. We went in a short while later and a high speed lift zoomed us up to the top floor. I loved it, but Mum looked like she was about to be sick! However, she recovered quickly after having some fruit and orange juice and I walked over to the window to look at the fantastic view. You could see miles of London from this very high building and I was impressed. I stood there, croissant in hand, as more people entered the room and it was soon full of reporters, children, authors and other important people.

I had butterflies in my stomach, waiting to know who the sixth Children’s Laureate was. A reporter from the Times interviewed us all briefly, but after that, we went to sit down in our seats at the other side of the bar. The announcement ceremony started soon after we were all in our seats and opened with a speech by Viv Bird, Chief Executive of Booktrust, welcoming us to the event. Several speeches followed, but I found them quite interesting. Nonetheless, I still could not stop thinking about who the next Children’s Laureate would be; it was only a few minutes until it was announced.

Andrew Motion began his speech. He mentioned that the children present were winners of a competition and asked us to stand up in front of everyone. It was embarrassing in a way, as everyone was looking at us, but it was nice to have the spotlight for once, especially at such an event as this. I was glad to sit down, though, as we drew ever closer to finding out the identity of the sixth Children’s Laureate.

At last, after months of waiting and wishing, it was revealed that Anthony Browne was the next Children's Laureate. I must say, I hadn't read any of his books, so I didn't know what to expect when he went up to do his speech. As soon as he started to talk about the shape game and the work he did, though, I was sure they had made the right decision by picking him. He had been Children's Laureate for a matter of minutes, and he was already bringing smiles to the faces of children and adults. I had played the shape game when I was younger, and wanted to go up and turn a random shape into a work of art, but my nerves got the better of me and I decided against it, letting the others go up instead.

After the announcement I turned a shape into the London Eye, but no-one could guess what it was because I had left the spokes out from the middle, although when I told Anthony Browne what it actually was later, he was very polite about it. After we played the shape game, Anthony Browne had many pictures taken of him before we were allowed into the shot and crouched around him. There were so many pictures taken at once, I didn't know who to look at!

We were then asked by numerous reporters if they could interview us, and I found myself being asked lots of hard questions, like 'What is the importance of picture books?' and 'Do you think it's good that an illustrator has got the role?' I felt like I was sitting an exam at school! Afterwards, we interviewed Anthony Browne and asked him questions we wanted to know the answer to. He provided very long, articulate answers, and I wished mine had been that good.

I stayed long enough at the event to get Michael Rosen and Anthony Browne’s autograph and have my picture taken with Anthony. As my mum and I left the building, I felt sad that the day had come to a close so quickly. Maybe I could enter the competition in two years time..."