The Grand Award Ceremony of NALIS’ National Universal Children’s Poetry Competition was held on Friday 24 November 2006 10:00 a.m. in the Audio-Visual Room, National Library Building.

The event celebrated the stellar achievement of three young poets whose works were selected by President of the Circle of Poets, Niketa Yearwood. These were chosen as exemplary poems deserving of the National Children’s Poetry Award.

The first leg of the competition which commemorated Universal Children’s Day, October 4, was open to all children between the ages of six to twelve during the month of October. Entrants in three age groups (6-8, 9-10, 11-12) were asked to submit original poems, either in Standard English or Creole, on a topic of their choice. More than 300 poems were submitted at the branches throughout the country. Forty-eight finalists were selected for this Friday’s National Children’s Poetry Award Ceremony.

Each branch library awarded book prizes to their 1st place winners in each category. The following were the branch winners:

Arima Book Mobile Carnegie
Nicholas Whiteman
Renaldo Toney
Stephanie Boodoo
Rianna Hosten
Patrice Rogers
Steffon Dwarika
Chelsea Lalchan
Chelsea Dwarika


Chaguanas Maloney Couva
Adele Sampath
Quinton Aleong
Kavrita Dasigan
Seth Pierre
Nathaniel and Abigail Mc David
Kwasi Lewis
Lashunda Joseph
Mickeilla Luke
Leigh-Ann Bishop


Mayaro Moruga Point Fortin
Shanika Chance
Cadejha Joseph
Markelon Lewis
Mary Khan
Marcus John
Maya Ramnarinesingh
Anna Ramnarine
Cadiea Bedeshi


Port-of-Spain Princes Town
Mikka Cabral
Alexis Thavenot
Raphael Lashley
Gabriel Alexander-Maharaj
Amrith Rajkumar
Dylan Gangoo