Young Author winners revealed, inspired by Kitty & the Sky Garden books
Congratulations to Olivia at Parkfields Middle School, Moto Toddington’s adopted school, who was the winner of the annual Young Author writing competition!
Children from our adopted schools were challenged to write their own stories about Kitty and the Sky Garden Adventure, based on the books by Paula Harrison (author) and Jenny Lovlie (illustrator).
We received 651 stories from 18 schools, in the writing competition’s tenth year. Olivia’s story came out on top, with the winning school receiving £2,500 for outdoor play equipment as well as a brilliant writing workshop from Kitty author, Paula Harrison.
Paula said of Olivia’s story:
‘I loved your snappy story opening and your strong use of first person narrative let us understand really well what your character is feeling and thinking. Finding out that the creature is a tiger is quite a surprise! Your story has a great structure with rising tension as more and more complications arise and there is a well thought out conclusion. I got a strong sense of your protagonist as a very kind and thoughtful character’
There were also 4 runners up, whose schools each received £1,000 worth of books from Oxford University Press, as well as £50 WH Smiths vouchers for the young wordsmiths to spend for themselves. Congratulations to our runner-up schools, Parkland’s Primary (Moto Wetherby), Westbrook Primary (Moto Heston), Bexton Primary (Moto Knutsford) and Richmond School (Moto Scotch Corner).
Here is a little excerpt from winner Olivia (aged 10)’s story:
” I tried to keep to the edge of the playing field. I didn’t want to frighten anyone or for my new tiger friend to get spooked. I needed to be careful. Unfortunately, someone spotted the tiger from a classroom window. A blaring alarm suddenly sounded. The school was being locked down I started to feel panic again. I looked wildly around. The tiger had gone!”
The Foundation’s Young Author competition entered its’ tenth year this year, in partnership with our friends at Oxford University Press. In that time over 5,500 short stories from our adopted schools have been submitted!
