Year 3 & 4 Category
Winner – Electro Virus by Ella Stevenson (Southfield Primary School)
Author Maz Evans said: “Oh Ella! You’re a clever little onion aren’t you! As a mum of three children, this sat well with me and I think a few other parents might like the sound of this too. It is a really lovely take on the times in which we’re in. Very clever and beautifully, beautifully written. Ella’s a fantastic and really worthy winner of this category.”
2nd Place – Unicorn by Chidinma Ogah (The Beacon CE Primary School)
Author Maz Evans said: ” I just loved this Chidinma. Sometimes there’s a line in something that just grabs you – and that was the case with this lovely, lovely poem. The line, ‘Be a unicorn amongst the dragons’, is gorgeous! It brought a tear to my eye. We should all aspire to be a unicorn amongst the dragons! It was lovely and it just goes to show you don’t need write a lot to have a really big impact.”
3rd Place – The Toilet Monster by Himank Sharma (Lee Chapel Primary School)
Author Maz Evans said: “I LOVE this Himank! It’s brilliant and just made me laugh. As someone who tries to be funny myself, I think funny writing isn’t given enough credit because actually it’s really hard to do. This is funny and its clever and it put a great big smile on my face.”
Year 5 & 6 Category
Winner – Writer’s Block by Fatema Zahra Mathwani (Northwood College for Girls GDST)
Author Maz Evans said: “This one was a standout winner for me. The subject matter spoke very deeply to me as a writer and it is beautifully written. You may only be 11 Fatema, but you write with the wisdom of a 900 year old person! It’s funny and its clever and I just think its an astonishing piece of writing. I love ‘they twist and they twirl,/pirouetting endlessly…/for resolve has been ignited!/from depths of litera-sea’, it’s SO CLEVER! Fatema, you have a huge career ahead of you as a writer and you’re going to make a lot more money that I do.”
2nd Place – Nikki by Lilly Emma McGinn (Ecole Voltaire (Berlin))
Author Maz Evans said: “One of the things that never fails to amaze and delight me, and fill me with hope for the future, is children’s boundless empathy – the ability to see something from someone else’s point of view. This story, about a topic that has been under discussion a lot lately, was wonderfully empathetic and I hope might make people think a little bit – which is an important job for a writer. Writers are here to entertain but also sometimes to present another view. I thought it was a really beautiful story Lilly, so well done to you. Absolutely fantastic stuff.”
3rd Place – The Interlude by Ralphie Bailey(The British School (Tokyo))
Author Maz Evans said:”Oh Ralphie this is a lovely lovely poem. Although, it is actually a Haiku, of course, which is a very short, traditionally Japanese, poem. I think creativity works well under constraint and with the constraints of a Haiku which are 5, 7, 5 syllables, you have to be so economical with your language. I just think this is a lovely poem about the times in which we find ourselves now. We all just get to take a breathe is a lovely way of looking at it. Absolutely beautiful and very highly skilled as well, Ralphie, so huge congratulations.”