This summer Atom Learning launched a nationwide search for the best young writer in the country. We challenged children to write a piece of original fiction about a day that changed the world.
As the competition drew to a close in September, we received more than 1,500 entries. Amongst those stories, many young authors tackled topical issues like climate change, global conflict, food poverty, and disability.
A team of 20 judges worked through the entries and were judged against:
Quality of writing and story structure
Creativity, ingenuity and imagination
Use of language & grammatical accuracy
The writer’s ability to engage the reader
From the top of the Eiffel tower to the bottom of the deep blue sea, the winning stories took us to faraway lands, found creative solutions to real-world problems, and wrote stand-out stories that captivated the judges.
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Luna’s story took a classic theme and put a playful, charming twist on it. The heartwarming plot reminds us to have the courage to face our fears, and never judge a book by its cover. She demonstrated her writing skills with varied language, excellent dialogue and rich vocabulary - all in under 500 words. Her charming story secured her family a trip to Disneyland Paris and a cash prize of £2,500 for her primary school.
Excerpt from Luna’s story:
Every child knows there is a monster under their bed. Despite what their parents say, they know it. Ollie was no different. Often, he’d stay awake at night, sweaty palms, racing heart, hoping that the monster wouldn’t come out from under the bed. But then came the day that changed everything.
One night, there was horrible thunder and lightning. Ollie lay on his bed, chattering his teeth and hugging his legs to his chest. Suddenly, a crack of thunder burst through the air, which was the last straw for Ollie. If there was one thing he was scared of more than monsters, it was thunder and lightning. He was petrified. He couldn’t move his body except for his eyes, which were frantically darting around. He was too scared to even scream for his parents. His football poster of Lionel Messi grinned at him with a disturbing look, his dartboard looked like a menacing face and the tree outside his room tapped on the window, making it seem like someone was trying to get in. His blood was freezing. Ollie slowly reached out his hand to find a book. At least books didn’t seem creepy.
“Oh, if only someone could read me a story,” Ollie whimpered, feeling all alone. But something heard him. Something felt sorry for him. That something came out from under the bed.
“Eeeek!” Ollie screeched. Now the two things that he feared the most had both come.”
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Category: Age 10-11
1st Place - Harley C
Harley’s imaginative tale took us on a whirlwind tour of iconic world landmarks as you’ve never seen them before. His well-structured story had strong pacing and is a testament to the power of humanity when we are working together towards a common goal. His joyful story secured his family a trip to Disneyland Paris and a cash prize of £2,500 for his primary school.
Excerpt from Harley’s story:
As much as Harley was enjoying flying there was a slight problem, he didn’t know how to land! The whole world was worried about him and all came together to help him land safely.
As he flew over London, all the soldiers had come together and put a giant bouncy castle on the roof of Buckingham palace, but as much as he loved bouncy castles he was too scared to land.
Then he flew over Paris, where all the bakers had come together to bake giant baguette ladders on the Eiffel Tower for him to climb down, but as much as he had always wanted to visit Paris he was still too scared to land. He flew over Italy where the Colosseum had been turned into a huge cake and all the chefs had come together to cover the leaning tower of Pisa with pizza dough and topped it with a deep spring pan pizza for him to land on, but as much as he loved cake and pizza he was still too scared to land.
He came to Mount Everest where all the hikers had come together and turned it into a giant ice cream mountain, Harley really loved ice cream so he flew down towards it, but as he licked the top he was still too scared to land. The world was getting really worried about him and how he would land safely.
Suddenly in the distance was his favourite thing in the whole world, an inflatable slide! The whole of China had come together and turned the Great Wall of China into a giant inflatable slide. He aimed straight for it and landed safely on the ‘Great Slide of China’ with all the world cheering him as he whizzed down it.
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