A free story-writing contest for Grades 3, 4 and 5. The best 101 stories are published by Buttercup, with each child's name and school in print, and every published child receives their copy free.
Buttercup Storywriters is our initiative to advance literacy through creativity in the age of AI. Children write a story on a Buttercup illustration, practise on our storywriting platform, and the strongest write a final story in class. Everything is free: taking part, the platform, the workshop, the book and its delivery. No cost to the school, no cost to parents, nothing for teachers to mark.
Register your school →
Tap a stage to see what happens in it. Dates are shared with registered schools when the contest opens.
The school registers on this page. Places are limited to 300 schools across Delhi NCR to keep judging quality high. Each registered school receives a unique registration link and a WhatsApp pack: a circular for parents, the story illustration, and writing tips. Forwarding it to parent groups is the school's whole job.
Interested children in Grades 3, 4 and 5 register on the Buttercup storywriting platform through their school's link, with a parent's phone and email and a consent tick. Registration is free.
On the platform, children find short videos and tips on how a story is built, practice illustrations to write on, and examples of what our editors look for. They can practise as much as they like before Round 1.
Round 1 runs on the Buttercup storywriting portal. Each child writes a story at home on the Buttercup illustration, and a parent uploads a photo of the handwritten page or types it in on the portal. Open for four weeks. A parent may help with spelling; the idea and the words must be the child's own, and AI tools may not be used.
Buttercup's editors read every entry and shortlist up to five children per school, judged on imagination and a clear beginning, middle and end, never on spelling or handwriting. Shortlisted children and their schools are told directly.
Shortlisted children write in one supervised period at school on a new illustration nobody has seen, on plain paper, on the same day. A teacher photographs the pages and uploads them through the school link. This is the story that counts, and it is why no AI detector is needed: the process guarantees it.
A named jury of Buttercup authors and editors picks 101 stories from Round 2, with a cap of three per school so every school gets a look-in. Every entrant receives a named certificate by email.
The 101 stories are edited, illustrated and published as a Buttercup book, with each child's name and school under their story. Every published child receives a printed copy, delivered free. Every parent receives the e-book. The book is sold across India and travels with us to the international fairs.
We don't mark handwriting, spelling, grammar or big words. We read for a child's voice, and our editors can tell when a story sounds like a nine-year-old and when it sounds like a grown-up or a computer. Stories that are too neat, explain their own moral at the end, or use words a child wouldn't use go to the bottom of the pile.
The story that gets published is the one written in class in Round 2, on a picture nobody has seen before, in one period. That's the one that counts.
Help with spelling, help with reading it back, help with a cup of milk. Don't help with the idea, and please don't use AI. It won't help, because we're judging what AI can't do, and it will show in the classroom round.
Buttercup Publishing is a UK children's publisher, known for character-led narrative illustration, hand-painted in watercolour and gouache, with hand-lettered read-aloud text set into the artwork. Our titles are licensed by publishers across Europe, the Middle East and Asia and shown at Bologna, Frankfurt and London every year. The Storywriters book is made by the same editors, authors and illustrators, delivered free to every published child, distributed across schools in Delhi NCR and through retail channels in India, and shown at the international fairs with the rest of our list.
