On World Book Day I challenged the children of Class 4 at Barford St Peter’s Primary to write a story about how their character overcomes a fear. They came up with some wonderful tales involving little pigs who are afraid of their own shadows, wild wolves in the forests of Finland, magical trees with quirkily named goblins and a scary shredded cheese monster – to mention just a few!
I’ve had a wonderful time reading the competition entries, and a very difficult time choosing from such an entertaining selection. Here are the winners:
Overall Winner
The Magical Jigsaw, by Mia aged 10 (above right), is an original and well-rounded story with an enticing opening and a great final sentence.
Runners up
The Elf & the Goblin Kingdom, by Jem aged 9 (above centre), demonstrates lovely use of vocabulary and very quirky character names!
The Wolf Stone, by Joe aged 10 (above left), has an interesting and evocative setting and a real sense of the power of the wolves.
The top three were each presented with a certificate and a writer’s notebook so that they can write more marvellous stories! You can read Mia’s winning story here.
***** STOP PRESS – BREAKING NEWS FROM BARFORD ST PETER’S *****
When I went to Barford St Peter’s Primary School this morning to present the winners’ prizes, Class 4’s teacher, Miss Emily Ballard, had some very exciting news:
Class 4 has been Highly Commended in the Reading Zone Design a Picture Book Competition (read more here). Here is what judge David Melling (author of Hugless Douglas and many others), had to say about their book:
“Inventive and original with lively and considered layouts throughout the book. I particularly enjoyed the use of different fonts to emphasis certain words and phrases and how they interacted with the illustrations. A very creative book from the authors and the illustrators that deserved to be mentioned.”
This competition attracted more than 1,500 entries. Great Work, Barford St Peter’s!
On Saturday May 26th I spent a lovely afternoon at St Mary’s Church, Warwick telling the story of Sir Guy of Warwick and helping the children to write and illustrate their own versions – with the help of my very own home-grown Lady Felice.
We had a wonderful collection of work ranging from some very simple shape poems through acrostic verse to stories of dragons and damsels. We even had instructions for an X-Box version of the story of Sir Guy, plus the tale of how Felice came to open her own cleaning company while her husband was away on his quests!
I’m delighted to report that the StoryVine writers, have been booked for a return visit to the Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival this April..
Jenny Heap 