Art

Meet the winner of our Spring Kids Cover Competition

Our post box was crammed with brilliant designs. Judge Axel Scheffler had a tough job to pick just one winner

by:

30 Mar 2026

April Floyer with her winning cover

Out of hundreds of entries we received for this year’s Spring Kids Cover Competition, six-year-old April Floyer from Northampton has been chosen as our winner.

Her message resonates with Big Issue – ensuring people have a safe place to sleep echoes our own core values – but it is also a simple and hopeful message for a world where lives are being disrupted by conflict and chaos.

“It must be scary for people who don’t have a safe bed or have to live outside,” April says. “I know I am lucky to have a safe bed to sleep in. When you’re in bed it’s nice and quiet – if your mum and dad are not hoovering.”

Choosing the winner of this year’s Spring Kids Cover Competition was a challenge. To review the hundreds of entries we received from across the country we needed the help of The Gruffalo illustrator Axel Scheffler.

Read more:

April’s father Nick was thrilled by the awesome news that his daughter’s design would become the front cover of the magazine.

“When I told April about the competition, she was immediately keen,” he says. “April loves to write and draw. She has told me that she wants to write books when she’s older. I read the details to her: ‘draw what peace means to you’, gave her a few bits of paper and left her to it. At that point she didn’t know anything about Big Issue or its mission.

“When she showed me her picture, it was only then that we had a conversation where I explained how the magazine helps people who might not have a safe place to sleep or a bed to sleep in at all, and that her picture might actually hold greater meaning.

“It was simple: someone in bed, smiling, eyes closed. She’s six. That’s what peace means to her.”

A word from our judge, Axel Scheffler

“I was very happy to help judge the Big Issue cover competition and to see the wonderful pictures from children of various ages. I was impressed by the entries and many had a really good feeling for design.

“In such troubled times in the world, it was great to see the younger generation thinking about and expressing the importance of peace, kindness and having a safe place to sleep.”

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more.

Change a vendor’s life.

Buy from your local Big Issue vendor every week – and always take the magazine. It’s how vendors earn with dignity and move forward.

You can also support online:
Subscribe to the magazine or support our work with a monthly gift. Your support helps vendors earn, learn and thrive while strengthening our frontline services.

Thank you for standing with Big Issue vendors.