Story competition winners
Thank you to everyone who sent us a story! The judges were amazed at the thought, imagination and creativity that went into so many of them. With a whole host of fantastic entries to choose from our panel had a tough time picking their favourites. But, as we know, they could only select three winners from each category and after much deliberation they finally reached a decision. Drum roll please! Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, introducing our winners, their star stories and comments from Jeremy Strong, our independent story competition judge.
And the winners are...
AGES 2-5
'I loved the way smoothies were invented! A story well told. The girls might be clever but I bet it was the boys who made the mess and thus the smoothies! Lots of fruits listed and a good message.'
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One sunny day Grace, Archie and Oscar went to the park. At the park they had a picnic. There was a mountain of food, more food than you have ever seen before. And the food was as colourful as a rainbow, and it was all super healthy. There were apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, pears, melon, strawberries, raspberries, kiwis, plums, blueberries, peaches, pineapples, passion fruits and some others that no one even knows the names of!
The three friends had eaten enough, so they decided to get up off of the picnic rug and have some fun and get some exercise. They started to run around chasing each other, playing tig. Then they played hide and seek, and what's the time Mr Wolf. With all the running around and jumping about, all the leftover fruit got smashed up and started dribbling everywhere.
Grace, Archie and Oscar tried to stop the mess getting worse; they grabbed their cups and collected all the gunky stuff oozing everywhere. One of them, and we don't know who but we think it was Grace because she's a girl and girls are very clever, tried a drink. "Wow," she shouted, "this is the best smoothie in the world."
And that is how smoothies are made today for the shops!
'I liked the details in this story - too much chocolate, 68 bars! Super strong Oscar was funny, pushing his mum in the pushchair. A good message, well delivered and fun to read. Well done, Dillon!'
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Once upon a time there were two brothers and one sister. They were Archie, Grace and baby Oscar. Archie and Grace played a game of being robots and stomping around. They couldn't play for very long because they had eaten too much chocolate and started to feel sick. Grace had eaten 68 bars! Her tummy was making horrible noises and it really hurt. Grace couldn't even eat her lunch because she felt so horrible.
Oscar was the baby and he liked to eat fish and apples. He ate lots of food that was good for him and it made him super strong. He was a very strong baby and sometimes he pushed his mummy around in the pushchair when she was tired. He could paint pictures of trains all day long because he was healthy and happy.
It wasn't long before Grace and Archie had to go home to bed because they were so sick. When they got home, mummy took Oscar to a petting zoo as a special treat. He fed some baby lambs with a bottle of milk and he fed a horse with a carrot. He felt happy giving them some healthy things to eat. Grace and Archie wanted to be more healthy so they could always have fun too.
'A lovely, fun story with engaging details. I liked the sense of sharing and how everyone benefitted at the end - even the monkey! A good level of storytelling for such a young age'
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Grace, Archie and Oscar like eating healthy food. They eat porridge a lot and they like lots of fruit and vegetables.
In their garden they grow lots of healthy food like carrots.
They have one thousand and ninety nine apple trees.
One day they saw one of their apples had grown ginormous.
It was bigger than the moon!
They love going to the beach and castles and lots of places that are fun.
They took the apple lots of places and they ate it every day.
It was so big they shared it with everyone.
They felt very full.
When they got home on Thursday, they saw in their garden that one of their carrots had grown ginormous too!
Archie peeled the carrot.
Oscar chopped the carrot.
Grace cooked the carrot to make carrot soup.
There was lots and lots and LOTS of carrot soup!
They shared it with everyone in the country.
Everyone loved it, but one day it was all gone.
Gracie, Archie and Oscar got home on Sunday and then they saw the most ginormous thing they had ever seen. This time one of their bananas had grown big, but the next day it was gone!
Someone had stolen it.
Their friend Monkey had eaten it all.
Grace, Archie and Oscar didn't mind.
They taught everyone how to grow big fruit and vegetables and everyone was happy.
AGES 6-9
'The writing in this story was so immediate and involving and comical. Nevertheless it delivers the right message. It is a very warm, happy story with a message. Terrific!'
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We are the Goodness kids: Grace, Oscar and Archie. We call our Grandma "Goodness Me Grandma" because...
When we went swimming the other day, Grandma had to put the car seat in her car for safety. "Grandma you are so healthy" said Oscar.
"Goodness me" said Grandma, "am I really?"
"Yes", said Oscar "You are like Wonder Woman!"
When we got to the pool, Archie said "I can swim 36 lengths, Grandma".
"Goodness me" said Grandma, "that's a lot. You are so clever. I didn't even learn to swim until I was was 30!"
"I can tread water for three minutes" said Oscar.
"Goodness me" said Grandma, "we will have to have a competition".
"I want to see you do your frog legs," mummy said to Grace.
Grandma said "I can do frog legs really well".
Mummy is having another baby. When they got out of the pool and got changed, Grandma saw how big mummy's tummy had grown. "Goodness me!" said Grandma.
Driving home, Grandma told us about a competition to write about healthy foods.
"What is the prize?" asked Grace.
"I can't remember" said Grandma.
"Is it 40 grand?" said Archie. "Goodness me!" said Grandma "where do you get it from?!"
"We could write about a world made of chocolate" said Archie, "where everyone eats chocolate and gets really fat."
"We could", said Grandma.
"And then they get fed up with chocolate and find they really like healthy fruit and vegetables and things" shouted Grace.
"Goodness me what a good idea that is!" said Grandma.
'This was another excellent tale, well written with humour and a serious purpose. I loved the idea of the Rotten Tooth Family'
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Once upon a time there were three people called Grace, Archie and Oscar. Grace read the newspaper. She told the boys that there was a crime to solve. It was really, really, extremely bad! The fruit and vegetables were gone from all the shops! They could not buy there any more. They had to solve the crime first. "Let's go on a crime-solving mission" said Oscar. Archie suggested. "Hey I bet the robbers are in the forest, let's go and look there."
They ran to the forest and on their way they found four banana skins, two carrots and two heart-shaped potatoes. When they got to the forest they found lots of people crying for their fruit and vegetables. Grace said "you can stop crying now. We will help you. We are on a crime-solving mission". The people said that would be great. They walked some more and they found two cabbages and two strawberries. Suddenly they caught sight of the Rotten Tooth Family.
"Look there are the Rotten Tooth Family" shouted one of the people. "They must have holes in their sacks. That must be where the fruit and vegetables came from."
Soon they caught up with the robbers "Hey you, stop right there!" said Grace. The robbers started to run. Archie shot his carrot strings. Oscar fired his cabbage balls and they made the robbers fall over. Grace tied the robbers up with grapevines. The three goodness heroes took the robbers to Tesco to have fruit smoothes and the robbers realised that they liked fruit and vegetables after all. And they all lived happily ever after.
'This story has a clever plot to show how important fruits and vegetables in the diet are. The level of writing is quite sparky too'.
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"We're going to win!" said Bob.
"No, we're going to win!" cried Grace.
Bob, Boomer and Bella from the odd side of Swirler Street were arguing with Grace, Archie and Oscar from the even side of the street about who was going to win the running race at school sports day. "We need to plan for the big day" said Oscar.
They went home thinking.
Bob's plan was to eat as many sugary treats as he could. Sugar gives you energy, he thought. Bella's plan was to sleep lots "if I sleep a log I'm saving energy so I'll have lots on the day. I'm bound to win!"
Boomer's plan was to practise racing games on his computer. He was sure he could get lots of skills from that.
Archie, Grace and Oscar had better ideas.
Grace's plan was to eat bright, healthy foods and cut out the sweet treats to make sure she was really healthy.
Archie's plan was to bounce on his trampoline 1,000 times a day to make his muscles and heart fit and strong.
Oscar's plan was both healthy food and lots of exercise - sometimes both together, eating oranges in the break at football.
They all practised.
Sports Day arrived.
Unfortunately, Bob wasn't there - he'd been sick all night because he ate too much unhealthy food. Bella had slept in and was too late for the race.
Archie, Grace and Oscar were on the starting line bouncing, bright, bursting with energy. Boomer was there looking tired.
They were off! Grace, Archie and Oscar were all running well. Boomer was puffing and panting and was soon in last place.
It was very close but Oscar won!
He'd done all the right things to be a winner!
AGES 9-12
'A sparky, fun story with good characters and told with style. I liked the names chosen for the characters and the underlying humour. All in all a good effort'
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STOMP! The giant's huge feet shook the village of Tescotown as they stamped all the life from the ground. Three children, named Grace, Oscar and Archie, were eating their bananas when they experienced a terrible shake. It was the giant who lived on the hill stomping around again.
The giant adored eating hotdogs. However, the evil hotdogs, led by the villainous Captain Junkfood and Lieutenant Fatbelly, were giving the poor, unhealthy giant a very bad tummy ache! It was making him jump and roar.
The small threesome decided to do something about the horrific shakes. They were just setting off for the dark, gloomy cave when Oscar felt a tug at his green trousers. Whizzing round, a marvellous sight met their astonished eyes... a herd of marching cucumbers were lined up to form a massive army!
"If I am not mistaken, you are on a quest to defeat the vile Captain Junkfood, are you not?" asked the cucumber at the front. "Follow me, cucumbers! To the Giant!" Keeping in their lines, the cucumbers marched off towards the hill with Grace, Archie and Oscar bringing up the rear.
The head cucumber, Sergeant Veg, led the green herd up the hill and, to the children's surprise, straight down the giant's throat! Once inside, they met a swarm of hotdogs armed with unhealthiness. Grace, Oscar and Archie rushed at the hotdogs and knocked them over.
"Charge!" yelled Sergeant Veg, and the herd of marching cucumbers dashed into the crowd of hotdogs. The cucumbers rounded up the trembling hotdogs.
Panting, the children forced the hotdogs out of giant's huge mouth. They had done it! Tescotown was free of the terrible shakes from the now healthy giant! The brave heroes arrived home for a feast, but without cucumber, because it kept marching away!
'This was a good story, very well thought through, well done - I would like to have known more about the shark!'
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In the countryside, near a beach, live three children called Grace, Archie and Oscar. They are 10 years old.
Archie has ginger hair, is 4ft tall, likes to wear shorts all year and goes everywhere listening to his iPod.
Oscar is loud, made and when he gets angry his face goes bright red. His twin sister, Grace, wears glasses, plays chess and talks non stop.
They were all very different but the one thing they had in common was surfing. One day, they met a stranger called Mr Field. He was a teacher in London. He grew up in Cornwall where he surfed every day in the summer.
They told Mr Field about their plan to do a sponsored surf. Mr Field said "that sounds great but how are you going to have enough energy to surf trough the whole contest?" Gracie took Mr Field and showed him their picnic - apples, bananas, celery, carrots, chicken, boiled eggs, peanuts, cheese, milkshake, orange juice. Mr Field looked and said "Wow!
Oscar suggests they go and get their surfboards and asks Mr Field if he wants to join them. He says yes please and they run off to get started.
Archie and the others are surfing a really big wave when a grey fin appears behind them. The crowd that have gathered on the beach start pointing. Archie looks behind and sees that they are pointing at. Thinking quickly, he swims back to shore and grabs the picnic. He surfs back to the others and chucks the picnic into the water. The shark enjoys the meal and then swims back out to sea.
Mr Field says gratefully, "Thanks kids, good job you brought such a healthy picnic. I think that's the best meal that shark has ever had!"
'This story has some lovely yukky deails and I loved the ending which gave it a nice bit of personal information. The message was there too, thanks to the superheroes!'
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Grace, Oscar and Archie are best friends at school. To their teachers and friends they are normal children but in fact they have a secret - they are superheroes.
One lunchtime, Grace, Oscar and Archie grab their lunchboxes and charge to the hall with their class. Feeling hungry they start munching their lunch when Charlie, a chubby boy, slumps on the seat opposite them. When he opens his lunchbox they are gobsmacked. His lunch is a spongy jam doughnut, crisps and some cold pizza.
They can't believe their eyes. They have to do something immediately. It is superhero time. All three grab their super fruits and leave. Grace takes her magic grape and squeezes juice into her mouth. Oscar takes his special orange and starts to peel it and Archie takes a bite of his amazing apple. Flash! Three fruity heroes appear!
They race back to the hall as fast as they can. As they approach they hold out their hands and instantly lightening flashed from their fingers and hits Charlie's lunch - mouse droppings appear on the pizza, fish food in his crisps and frogspawn in the doughnut.
When Charlie takes a bite he immediately clutches his stomach and turns.
The next day they notice that Charlie doesn't have a lunchbox. Wanting to know if he has learnt a lesson they follow him as he runs out of school... straight to the burger van outside. The team use their superhero powers again flashing the burger so it tastes of rotten eggs.
Was that enough to make him change? Yes! At lunch the following day has sandwiches, cucumber and apples. Their work is done.
Charlie continues his healthy eating and changes into a slim, handsome boy who is now Grace's boyfriend.