The Abbey Junior School celebrated World Book Day this year with two in-house budding authors and a visit from Julia Jarman, acclaimed childrens’ author.
Abbey Junior pupils Louisa, aged 5, and Amy, aged 8, have been selected as winners of the Evans Schools Short Story Competition and had their work published on World Book Day in the primary anthology ‘Lord of the Ring Doughnuts and other stories and poems’. They are two of only 29 talented young writers to be published out of more than 3,000 entries from schools around the country.
The entries were judged by Stewart Ross, one of Britain’s most versatile authors for young people. Both girls wrote their stories starting with lines provided by best-selling author Francesca Simon (“Ouch! I felt a sharp jab in the ribs. But when I turned round no one was there.”) Louisa, the youngest of the Evans winners, wrote a pithy little tale about childhood fears. Amy created a pretty and whimsical story about a mouse in need of assistance.
Amy and Louisa were awarded their certificates and special editions of the primary anthology, signed by Stewart Ross, in a special assembly with author guest Julia Jarman. In addition, the school received 200 copies of the anthologies from Evans Publishing - each winner receiving 100 copies. The Abbey Junior School having two winners represents a first in the history of the competition!
After assembly, the award-winning children's author Julia Jarman spent the day at the Junior School, reading from and talking about her books and conducting Q & A and book-signing sessions with all the girls. Julia has written over 100 books; these range from her brilliant picture books, ‘Big Red Bath’ and ‘Class two at the Zoo’ for pre-School children (both won the Stockport Schools' Book Award ) ‘ to ‘Peace Weavers’ a novel for older children, which intertwines peace weaving in the 6th century with themes of war and peace in the 21st century. In recent years, she is probably best known for her ‘Time-travelling cat’ series, where the cat, Ka is an amalgam of her own cats.
Julia had sessions with all the girls, including those in the Nursery, where she re-enacted the story of ‘Big red bath’ and led them in a song about the, ‘Big red train’. The older girls were fascinated by Julia’s notes, which showed the process of a book being made, from the original idea up to the final version. Julia ended the day by holding a sale of her books and then signed them all with a personal greeting.
Please click on the links below to read Amy's and Louisa's winning stories.
Please click here to read Amy's and Louisa'a report on CBBC Newsround