Children's short story competition - RESULTS

There was a fantastic response from local schools with over 270 stories received. Some of the titles included What if you shrunk when you pressed your belly button? What if Christmas was cancelled and What if paintings could take you there?

Hannah Rodwell from Bitterne Park Junior School grabbed first prize with her wacky story about a talking crab. On receiving her prize from local author Sandra Horn Hannah said “I wanted to write about a ‘talking animal’ but not a dog, or horse, or rabbit. So I tried to think of one that would make an unusual pet”.

Sandra who helped judge the event with Children’s Librarian Fiona Martin based at Shirley library said “judging the stories was very difficult because there were lots of great entries but we were looking for an ‘original voice” and Hannah’s talking crab story was just right”.

There were runners up prizes for pupils from Bitterne Park Junior School, Oaklands Community School and Sholing Technology College, whose stories were highly commended by the judges.

Click on the link in the right hand column to read Hannah's story