YCAA story competition

The Yeovil Community Arts Association asked me to be the judge for their annual children's story competition. It was such an honour. I chose the title Go Wild, as I wanted the children to go wild with their stories. And they did! It was such great fun reading all the entries. Each story had something amazing - whether it was an exciting beginning or a suprise ending. Some ideas were utterly original. There were twists and turns, fabulous descriptions, and wonderful language.  The stories made me smile, laugh, and one even made me cry.

The writers really embraced the title Go Wild. We had animals going wild in the jungle, people going wild at football matches and ghosts going wild in haunted houses. I read about shape-shifting and zombie magpies. 

I loved reading the stories, but it was incredibly tricky to judge. In the end, I chose an absolute winner and three runners up from the primary school entries, and then a winner and two runners up from the secondary school creative writing club. 

Please do take a look at the winning stories from the primary schools. They are all amazing. You can see how hard the children have worked and I wouldn't be at all suprised if they are authors of the future. 

A huge thank you to YCAA for asking me to be a part of this. Plus another thank you to Len Copland for taking some amazing pictures (coming soon) and also a special mention has to be given to the Yeovil Town football player. I gave an interactive talk after the prize-giving and needed a volunteer to dress up as a cat burglar. He was a total sport!

But the biggest thank you needs to go to all the children who took part in the competition. I think you are all stars!!!

THE WINNER: Go Wild by Lucy

Go Wild by Eden

Lost Property by Anabelle

Matty and the Monkeys by Emily