‘The storytellers of the future’ have had two amazing surprises after showing off their literary work.

Year three pupils at St George's C of E Primary School in Barrow were inspired by Yinka Shonibare CBE, a British Nigerian artist, and his work The British Library to produce their own miniature books.

Karen Stringer, deputy head and year three teacher, said: “The British Library 2014 is an installation of 6,328 hardback books individually covered in colourful ‘Dutch wax print’ fabric and arranged on rows of shelving.

“Names are printed in gold leaf on the spines of 2,700 of the books, the majority of which are of first- or second-generation immigrants to Britain, both celebrated and lesser-known, who have made significant contributions to British culture and history.

“Class three had been involved with the British Library’s Make A Pop-up Poetry Notebook project in the Autumn term and the poet Joseph Coelho had produced some miniature books for the Children’s Books website at the British Library.

“I was familiar with Yinka Shonibare’s work. I spent 13 years living in Nigeria so I unearthed my West African fabrics and let the children create their own miniature books to keep their favourite words in.”

Children selected a fabric that reflected their personality. They then wrote words and phrases that they enjoyed the sound of or that they found inspiring.

Mrs Stringer said: “Milla loved the word ‘kerfuffle’ so that was added to her book whilst Paisley liked the word ‘confiscate’. Others collected words from poetry they had read or from their reading books.

“I wrote to Yinka’s office to let him know that we had created these books. It was before Christmas and I didn’t hear anything back until this huge box arrived with wonderful bright off-cuts of Nigerian fabrics.

“We had just returned from Outdoor Learning so it was very exciting to open the box in front of everyone. The colours and patterns are so inspiring. We can’t wait to use them in our collage work. Bayley was full of ideas on how he would like to use the fabrics.”

In another successful literary activity, the class three pupils created concertina books as part of a British Library project entitled Step Inside Your Story.

Mrs Stringer said: “We were inspired by a video of a concertina book made by the author and illustrator, Jane Porter. I sent her some pictures of our completed work and she kindly posted us a letter, complete with a lovely illustration of a bird.

“The British Library Children’s Books section referred to my class as ‘Storytellers of the Future’ and the name has stuck!

“They share my excitement for words and love learning and using new vocabulary in their writing. Receiving this letter is so encouraging to young writers.”

Author Jane Porter wrote to the children: “Mrs Stringer has shown me your amazing concertina books - well done to all of you, I was very impressed!

“I can see you really enjoyed making them, and I hope the project has inspired you to keep reading, writing and drawing.”