21 dreams illustrated by Nick Sharratt, imagined by the children of 2020

Over 250,000 people tuned into the Puffin Festival of Big Dreams from 8–14 June and joined authors, illustrators and real puffins for events created to inspire the next generation of Puffin storytellers. We asked children to submit their own big dreams, and received hundreds upon hundreds, with subject matter ranging from houses of cheese to karate champions and skateboarding cats.

All week, our illustrator-in-residence Nick Sharratt was busy drawing those dreams submitted by children, and now we're pleased to present 21 of them.

1. To have a house made of cheese.
Poppy, aged 3

2. To have a pet unicorn.
Alexis, aged 9

3. To drive in a car made of bananas to the beach to splash in the sea with my friends Poppy, Harry and Hugo.
Leo, banana fanatic, aged 2

4. To become a wizard so I can create a spell to stop worrying about little things.
Louie, aged 8

5. To meet a sloth! I’m obsessed with them and want to bring one home for dinner.
Joey, aged 7

6. To have a pet cat that does skateboarding and can fly whilst on the skateboard. He would take me to places I want to go to whether it’s a theme park, the cinema, a desert island or even the moon. Cat and Clelia the astronauts! He would be very special to me, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love cats already.
Clelia, aged 8

7. I would like to visit a volcano and pour sugar in to make exploding sweets!
Benjamin, aged 3 (nearly 4!)

8. To be a world-famous singer who rides on the back of a giant tortoise on my world tour!
Evie, aged 7

9. I dream of having a pet narwhal which lives in a swimming pool in my back garden!
Annabel, aged 6

10. I dream of a queen bee who wears clothes and a crown. She sits on a throne, sipping honey tea to check that it's good enough. The fairies fetch the honey in teeny jars when the queen is happy with it.
Alice, aged 5

11. To play my cello in front of a herd of giraffes, my favourite animal!
Ilay, aged 8

12. I dream of hosting my own talk show where I interview biscuits.
Brodie, aged 4

13. I dream of a marshmallow trampoline in the living room which doesn’t allow parents to go on it.
Kate, aged 12

14. To be in the court of Henry VIII, hiding in the crowd and getting him SPLAT in the face with a rotten tomato fired from my catapult!
Arthur, aged 9

15. I want to dive underwater to play with sharks and take photos of them. I have buttons in my suit to help me swim faster!
Talia, aged 5

16. I dream of having a pet dinosaur I can take for a walk on a lead!
Judah-James, 7

17. I dreamt was a piece of bread in a toaster and “popped up” when it was time to wake!
Ben, aged 4

18. I dream of being a world champion in karate and competing at the Olympics. I have only just begun my karate career since lockdown (via Zoom).
Sylvie, aged 7

19. I dream of a walking tree that drops chocolate!
Holly, aged 8

20. I dream of a library where the books are edible and whatever book you eat, you learn all the facts and information in the book!
Poppy, aged 6

21. I dream of turning into a platypus and sailing to sea in a boat and meeting a nice crab.
Oscar, aged 4

Watch the full collage of big dreams by Nick Sharratt!

You can watch all the Puffin Festival of Big Dreams events again, from creative writing challenges to epic illustrator draw-offs and puppet theatre-making workshops on Puffin’s YouTube channel and right here on our website.