Friday, May 22, 2020

Announcing our Autumn Writing Competition Winners!

The wait is over! It's time to announce our Autumn writing competition winners!

Before we do our judges on the staff and teen book club panels want to say how deeply impressed we were with the quality of the entries we received. This decision was not easy, we had our work cut out for us! A big thank you to everyone who participated. It truly was a joy to read your stories, poems and essays.

Staff picks

7-8 Ellie C. The Underneath
9-10 Ignatius P. The Sucking House
11-12 Willem R. Above

Teen picks

7-8 Tess H.  My Home is Like an Island
9-10 Oliver O. The Grumps
11-12 Piper A. The Frozen Islands

Congratulations to our winners, who will each receive a $60 Readings eVoucher. Check out our Lightning Reader's Book Club blog here to read their entries.

Thanks again to everyone who entered and to all of the teachers and parents who encouraged participation.
We will be sending certificates to all participants shortly.

Oliver, The Grumps 9-10 Autumn Writing Competition Winner

The Grumps

Park Street is a perfectly normal street, apart from the fact that it has a floating house with a piece of earth attached underneath. You see, number 64 Park Street has been owned by the same family through generations. That family was known as THE GRUMPS.

It was a bright and sunny day on Park Street, like any other normal day, and the Grumps were arguing through their morning routine. “Where’s my toothbrush?” exclaimed John Grump. John was a small plump boy with red rosy cheeks and light brown hair. He was 11 years old.  John wore ripped denim jeans and a yellow t-shirt with so many stains there wasn’t one bit of yellow left (apart from mustard of course). “I don’t know, but where’s my hairbrush?” shouted Sarah Grump. Sarah was a ragged girl not much older than her brother; several teeth were yellow and a few had even fallen out. She had dyed blue hair and wore dark green tracksuit pants which (if you ask me) did not go well with her light blue t-shirt, which was also covered in stains. Sarah and her brother looked like they had matching t-shirts even though one was blue and the other yellow. Of course, you couldn’t see this because of all the stains. “Oh, would you stop screaming!”, yelled Mrs and Mr Grump in unison. Mr and Mrs Grump are grumpy old lads, in fact their name describes them perfectly. They both wore old scrappy clothes and had dark messy hair that was so SCRUFFY and disorganised you could mistake it for an octopus' tentacles.

The Grumps were very well known on Park Street for the continuous screaming and racket that came from their house. Everyone on Park Street was SO fed up with the Grumps, even the trees had headaches and regularly the tree leaves would rustle from their blaring arguments. The Grumps lived on a levitating piece of earth about 20 metres above the ground and they could STILL be heard throughout the whole neighbourhood. Centuries earlier, so the story goes, the Grumps levitated their house out of the ground because people hated them so much (but who knows if that is actually true). Theirs was a peach yellow and red house with bay windows and long grass growing around it (not well maintained as far as one could see). The house had been out of the ground for so long that numerous cracks started to form in the piece of earth attached below it. The only person who ever went up the spiral staircase leading to their house was the postman. In fact, most people didn’t even know about the staircase because it was hidden behind the house, and those that do know about it just don’t EVER want to go up there.

Sorry, let's get back to the story. After their morning routine the Grumps settled into their tiger skin fur couch and began their daily 8-hour T.V routine. The Grumps’ house was surprisingly pleasant to look at from the outside and the inside (once seen many years ago by the mailman) was well maintained with a beautiful marble floor throughout and 2 tiger skin fur couches in the main living area; where the Grumps spent most of their time.  Definitely not the type of house you would expect given the appearance of its inhabitants. Every day, half-way through their T.V routine, the mailman came. The mailman went by the name of Gary Snud. Gary wore a light blue uniform and travelled from house to house, delivering the mail by bike. Gary came from a long line of mailmen.  In fact, Gary’s father, grandfather, great grandfather and great great grandfather had delivered the mail to the Grumps over the centuries. 

Gary hated delivering the mail to the Grumps, he was so afraid of them  (from all the stories he had heard over the years) he usually dropped the mail before he even got to the mailbox, then he would rush back down the stairs as fast as he could to get to his bike and ESCAPE. The truth is that the Grumps had never seen him, spoke to him nor even waved at him; never mind hurt him, but he was still petrified of them.

On the day of our story the mailman slowly stepped up to the mailbox (like every other day) trying to conquer one of his fears, which include the Grumps, chips, people wearing hats and the one and only 64 Park Street mailbox. He slowly slid the plain white envelope into the mail slot. “YES!” he shouted in triumph, then he rushed over to the staircase to make his escape. Suddenly, Gary slipped and the worst thing possible happened...

The Goody-Two Shoes, a neighbouring family who lived directly across the road at 65 Park Street, were watching in horror as the frightened mailman clung onto the edge of the levitating lawn with his fingernails. The Goody-Two Shoes family had been the Grumps nemesis throughout generations, but the fact was this generation of both families had NEVER actually met. The Goody-Two Shoes were also a family of four who went by the names of Craig, Dom, James and Cindy. Craig and Dom were around the same age as John and Sarah Grump. They wore matching dungarees with white and blue checkers and a dark blue t-shirt with neatly polished black shoes. Their parents James and Cindy wore different clothes (thankfully). James wore a neat black suit with a striped tie and polished black shoes and Cindy wore a thin red skirt and a red long-sleeved t-shirt. All of Cindy’s clothes were red, it was her favourite colour. The Goody-Two Shoes watched in horror as the panicked mailman clung onto the edge of the floating piece of earth. “Oh no” they screaming pointing to the mailman’s dangling body as he yelped for HELP.

Back up at 64 Park Street the Grumps heard a panicked scream coming from outside. For the first time in years the Grumps departed their levitating home to see what was going on. To their horror, Gary the mailman was hanging on the edge of their land. The only way the Grumps recognised the mailman was because of his uniform, as they had NEVER actually seen him before. The Grumps didn’t know what to do… Should they save him? Should they leave him? What should they do? Without thinking, instinctively, all four of them rushed over and pulled the mailman up to safety. By this time the whole of Park Street was watching with bated breath. “What a kind act!” the whole street said in harmony. EVERYONE clapped and screamed with joy.

As they clapped and screamed with happiness and relief something very peculiar occurred, the floating piece of earth with the Grumps’ house on top de-levitated to where it used to sit. The mailman was so grateful he could literally jump for joy, he was back on solid ground SAFELY. The whole street cheered for the Grumps and they were welcomed, with open arms (after they all washed), back into the community. The next day the Goody-Two Shoes paid the Grumps a visit and both families sat down for tea and became great friends.  The whole of Park Street learnt a great lesson that day that it is important not to judge a book by its cover.

A new generation of Grumps and Goody-Two Shoes now live beside each other in harmony and tell anyone who cares to ask the tale of the day that changed the landscape forever.  The Grumps even have a new mailman called Michael Snub, the son of the famous Gary Snub, who delivers mail daily to all houses in Park Street; although he does have a new fear when he approaches number 64, the 3-foot Labrador who greets him every day with a slobbery tongue.  So, if you ever drive down Park Street be sure to take time to visit the statue that has been erected of the Grumps saving the mailman, reminding everyone of the day the levitating house finally came back to EARTH.


Piper, The Frozen Islands 11-12 Autumn Writing Competition Winner


The Frozen Islands

Prologue: The end of the world

Terror flashed across Amina’s face as the tornado rampaged toward her. She could not move, her legs were jelly, her arms would not respond, even though every fibre in her being wanted her to turn and run. A stream of lava plagued the sky again. The ground trembled ominously underfoot. And a girl cursed her ancestors’ foolishness.

200 years later…

The Castle floated in his dreams again, impenetrable and menacing. But it wasn't the Castle he watched; it was the figure on the edge. A Knight stepped out of the Castle. The figure stepped back and slipped slightly, then tumbled over the edge, screaming.
Helios woke up, heart pounding, drenched in sweat. His golden hair was plastered to his forehead and his blue eyes darted around wildly. He sat up gingerly checking the bed beside him. A figure. Lumos. She was safe. ‘Of course,’ he thought ‘why wouldn't she be?’ but the uneasy feeling the dream had given him still lingered.
Lumo hated the new world. All the floating islands and the big cities suspended by an invisible force and everything they could not do. Of course, she would not remember the old world, that was more than 200 years ago, but she still had badmouthed it (that was the sort of person Lumo was). At present she was doing just that, loudly saying how she never believed in the school and wished their mother would let them take a Conet. Helios was more concerned why their school had not turned up. So, he distracted himself with their home island. The yellow walls of the house. The faded roof. The crumbling dirt below and the patches of dead grass. He was so distracted, he did not see the shadow, or the Knight, or anything until Lumo screamed.
Lumo watched in horror as the mega island floated towards them at breakneck speed. it slammed into the island, now dwarfed by comparison. A knight stepped on to their home, silver armour glinting in the sun. The island rocked, and twisted, crumbling to pieces. Adrenaline kicked in, and Lumo shoved Helios off the edge, jumping down with him.
Falling through the air, he only heard one thing Lumo said. “GRAVITY”! Helios panicked. Gravity? Gravity? A burst of understanding fire through his brain, and he ripped off his gravity watch.
Now suspended in mid-air, he wondered how he would get up to Lumo, some three metres above him. The downside of no gravity was that without something to pull yourself up by, you are virtually stuck. Lumo flipped upside down (the one thing you could do) and call to Helios. “My hair!” He grabbed the end of her long, dark, braid and hauled himself up it till he reached her. “Good thing I never cut it” she grinned, violet eyes twinkling.

Lumo now noticed the increasing drop in temperature, and the dwindling patches of sunlight. Shivering, she looked East, but the Sun had disappeared and was now replaced with a huge rock wall. The last rays of sunlight glinted off silver, alerting her of another presence. “The Knight”, she gasped softly. He was standing at the top of what must be his Castle, carrying a remote that looked like it was holding the wall up. People flocked out of their houses onto their islands dressed in warm clothes, fighting against the cold. Snowflakes began to fall, and soon snow was piled up everywhere. “He-e-e-e-lio-s-s” Lumo chattered, “W-w-we have to h-e-e-lp the-m-m-m”. Helios nodded slowly. They began to try and pull themselves through the air. “This is ridiculous”, Lumo muttered and she brought her fingers to her mouth, a shrill whistle escaping her lips.

A Conet was a tiny island (about the size of a queen-sized bed) and it was super-fast flying through the air, because the bigger the island, the slower it moved and vice versa. One was zooming toward them right now. Helios floated over, pulling himself up onto it and yelled “To the Castle!”. The Conet sped off, Helios and Lumo holding on for dear life. It then deposited them right in front of the Knight. “Stupid Conet”, Lumo cursed.

The Knight grinned wickedly. His whole body was encased in metal, apart from his eyes, which were an empty, soulless, black. “Hello” his voice slithered, “It’s so…nice to meet you”. Lumo crouched and launched herself at the Knight. He threw her off himself like she was no more than a sack of flour, and she fell through a trap door tumbling inside the castle. The Knight raced after her. Helios gripped the wall of the tower, looking over the edge, praying for Lumo’s safety. She ran out of the front door, all the way to the edge of the mega island. The Knight stepped out of the front door. Lumo stepped back. And she toppled over the edge.

 2 minutes before…

Lumo shook her head at the Knight’s foolishness. He had just yelled his whole master plan to her because he was just as stupid as every other villain. “Listen to me BRAT! The wall will freeze the whole world over, leaving everyone weak and at my mercy. I will reign forever; I will be the ultimate ruler!”. Bursting out the front door, Lumo ran to the edge of the island, as the Knight stepped out. She stepped back and fell over the edge screaming.

Helios ripped off his watch and jumped down from the tower. Floating down behind the Knight, he punched him in the back of the head. Naturally, the Knight punched back. Removing a sword from his sheath, the Knight raised it, about to strike Helios. Suddenly a shockwave knocked them both over. The wall dropped slowly towards the ground. Lumo floated up from below the island, her hair out and rippling behind her, storm clouds crossing her face, a smashed remote in her hands. Her watch was abandoned on the ground and she was now fully weightless. Rain began to fall softly crumbling the wall to dust. Lumo winked. Helios grinned and punched the Knight once more in the face.

Iggy, The Sucking House 9-10 Autumn Writing Competition Winner

The SUCKING HOUSE!!!!!!

Once there was a street with 50 houses, 49 0f them were normal one was not.It had a secret that people have been searching for an answer for over 5 years.

The owners of this house are called Mrs and Mr Wokkle. Both at age 857, they DETEST KIDS!!!

The dreaded secret of this house is it had been sucking kids in 1 by 1 for five years.

Mrs and Mr Wokkle are the kind of people who don’t throw your ball back when it goes over the fence... wanting you to come get it instead … that’s when they strike. The first person to get sucked in was a thick blonde haired kid called Chad.

Why are the owners so old you ask?... you see they’re aliens. No one knows… they have been collecting kids for their hair to fuel their spaceship. So the people with less hair are less likely to get sucked in.

But surprisingly no kid has died; they have survived by eating worms, in the mud underneath the house.

Suddenly, everything starts to shake. Then all the trees fall down CRACKLE BANG. The space ship begins to rise!!!

Earth tries to catch it in a bubblegun that was invented many years ago to stop child stealing spaceships… but that’s another story.

The spaceship shook aggressively breaking free. All the shaking dropped the missing kids from the mud like raindrops falling onto the neighbor's lawn. But it's too late. The spaceship has got away and Mrs and Mr Wokkle were never to be seen again.


YOU MAY CLOSE THE CURTAINS

Tess, My Home is Like an Island 7-8 Autumn Writing Competition Winner


My home is like an island

My home is like an island.
It’s lonely but it’s okay,
I have so much time to spend
But here we have to stay.

My home is like an island,
til the virus goes away
I am missing all my friends
I think of them all day

My home is like an island
I get bored with having to play,
With my brother and sister
But it’s the only way,

 My home is like an island
One day I will fly free,
Doctors will be so tired,
But we will all feel so lucky.

The Underneath by Ellie, 7-8 Autumn Writing Competition Winner


The Underneath by Ellie, 8

Jade woke her twin brother Michael.
          “Come with me,” she said.
          “No!” Michael replied. He knew right away where his sister wanted to go. “You know we are not allowed to go down to the underneath.”
          The Paste family lived in a floating house hundreds of meters above the surface of the Earth. Twenty-five years ago, the children’s mother, a scientist, and their father, a doctor, decided to leave the surface of the earth and move to their house in the sky. They left because they were tired of living in the pollution, and illness, and greed that nobody wanted to fix. Their parents always told them the underneath was a horrible, dangerous place where people could never smile. But Jade was curious. She wanted to see for herself what was actually down there.
          “I’m going with or without you,” Jade said.
          Michael knew she meant it so he followed her. Jade had a secret. She was very good with animals. She tamed an eaglet three years before and she was finally ready. She’d been waiting for this day for years, and now that she was eight she felt like she could finally take her backpack and go. She packed her bag with water bottles, blankets, and a bag of potato chips to share with Michael, maybe…
          “Michael, let me introduce you to STRIKA!” Jade said proudly. She whistled for the giant bald eagle with flashing eyes. The eagle looked ready for the ride down. Michael did not.
          The kids climbed on the magnificent eagle. Michael’s face was a purplish green.
          “This might be a bit bumpy,” Jade said, “but it should be perfectly safe…for me.”
          Michael wished he was still in bed.
          The bird swooped down. The wind in Jade’s ears sounded glorious. Strika caw cawed. Jade caw cawed. Michael screamed, “Watch out!”
          It was dark. He saw giant clouds of toxic fumes and he thought Strika would fall dead to the ground taking them with her. The bird swooped around tall smoke stacks. They saw ugly shopping malls. In the distance, the sky was turning a light orangey pink. Then they heard a moaning sound.
          “ZOMBIES!” the children yelled. They had heard stories from their parents about the people who turned into zombies after getting horrible diseases like the X plague.
          Strika was getting tired. She landed by a big building. The kids got off of her. The moaning was getting louder. Jade went inside curiously.
          “We are going to go see the zombie,” Jade said. “Get your weapons ready.”
          “What weapons?” Michael said.
          The kids walked inside toward the moaning and met an old man with white hair and white beard, tan skin, and fresh, glittery blue eyes. He was singing a song called Ladidahdidah. He didn’t sing very well.
          “You’re not a zombie,” Michael said.
          “Zombie! Of course, I’m not. I’m just old Mayor George Palycarry.”
          Jade was hungry. She took out her bag of potato chips.
          “Where did you guys get that?” George said. “Plastic bags are extinct now. They’ve gone the way of the Tasmanian Tiger. I haven’t seen one since I was twenty five years old. We only use nudie zips to hold food now. We can reuse those.”
          “We’re very sorry,” said Jade. “We have never been to the underneath.”
          “What do you mean the underneath?” asked George.
          “We were born in the sky,” Michael said. “Our parents gave up on the world. We’ve never been here before.”
          “Oh kids are so funny these days,” George said.
          “No, we’re actually saying the truth,” Michael said.
          “Well, let me show how the world is now,” George said.
          First, George took them towards his window. The toxic clouds were actually big, clean fluffy clouds. They looked over the city at the giant smokestacks. In the daylight, the smokestacks were scary looking. They hid behind George.
          “What is the matter?” George asked.
          “Sm…sm…smoke stacks!” said Jade. “So many toxic fumes!”
          George laughed. “We’ve converted the smoke stacks into beautiful vertical gardens. The only thing that comes out of them are seeds and oxygen. Let’s take a walk.”
          George and the children walked outside. They saw lots of really, really, really old people.
          “How are these people still living?” Michael asked.
          “We have regenerated our medicine into super medicine and now everybody is very healthy and they never get sick.”
          They walked towards the giant shopping mall. Michael and Jade thought they would see people fighting over tea pots and stuffed animals inside the shopping mall. When they walked inside, it was a giant library filled with beautiful illustrated books. Jade ran to get a book about baby octopuses.
          Michael asked, “What happened to all the stores?”
          George said, “People don’t want to buy things they don’t need anymore. We don’t even have money or banks anymore. We treat everybody fairly now, and people work just to help each other.”
          They walked through the library to a beautiful botanical garden. It was filled with people hugging trees and smelling flowers. Michael couldn’t resist the flowers. Jade whistled. Strika flew to her.   
          Jade said, “Let’s hop on and tell mom and dad they are wrong about the underneath.”
          “You can stop calling it the underneath,” George said. “You can call it fantasy land.”
          Michael wasn’t ready to leave. Jade pulled Michael’s hand. They got on to the eagle and flew home to their very worried mom and dad.
          “The underneath is wonderful,” Jade said.
          “It can’t be,” the parents said. “It was so awful when we left.”
          “People worked to change things. They concentrated on making out world better. We can finally have friends and be around other people,” Michael said.
          “It can be a new step in our life,” Jade said.
          “It’s not safe down there,” their parents said. “We have a beautiful home up here.”
          “We’re going down to live there, with or without you,” Michael said. “It’s time for us to all be brave.”
          The children left on Strika again. Two days later, their parents finally joined them. The kids showed their parents around and introduced them to George.
          “Hi, my name is Amber, and this is my husband, Clark,” said their mother.
          “Can we stay here forever?” asked Michael and Jade.
          “We have a lot to think about,” said their father.
          THE END for now

Above by Willem, 11-12 Autumn Writing Competition Winner

Above by Willem

I’ve been awake all night.

A sweet smell fills the room. I hear my sister groan. “Wow.  I say “Olive How can you sleep?” She emerges from the covers and pushes her dark hair from her face. “I love storms.and better still I smell breakfast” “Max, Olive. Time to get up,”Our mum’s voice rings out over the pounding rain. I shove my feet out of bed and land on the wooden floor. Suddenly the house tilts sharply. “Woah”I say “it’s going to be a rough day”. I steady myself on the bed. Olive grabs her bed head and we look at each other. “Ready?” She says. “You first”. I take a deep breath and launch myself off the bed and slide into the closest wall. The foam cushions my landing. Olive laughs. “Nice one” “See if you can do better”. I say. Olive slides on to the floor and wraps one arm round the bed leg.“Wait for it” I say.  A burst of hail drowns out my voice. The house suddenly tilts back horizontal and we both make a break for the bedroom door past all our furniture that has been clamped to the floor.
At the top of the stairs is a chair attached to a conveyor belt with a padded harness.
Olive straps herself in and presses an orange button. The chair descends with a jolt, mum’s voice calls out. “ Everything ok? These pancakes are getting cold.” Olive lands at the bottom and says. Better hurry up! She sends the chair back up. The house starts to sway wildly. I steady myself and make a leap for the chair. I pull the harness on and grip the soft arms as I descend.
The pancakes smell  so good. The house rights itself once more and I make it the kitchen.

I glide into the kitchen on my socks .Mom stands in front of our eating pod with a steaming plate of pancakes Olive is already zipped up inside the transparent sphere. Inside the pod is a leather booth with harnesses and plate and drink holders. I take the plate from mum and unzip the door. Olive is on her second serving!, I sit down and fill my mouth with blueberries and maple syrup. “Yum”  I say. “ Shhhh”  says mum outside the pod. “Listen,”she says. Her finger pointing to the ceiling. Everything was suddenly quiet and still. “It’s stopped raining,”  said Olive. Mum smiled. That was quite a storm.
A door flings open and a bearded man with a raincoat and a cable with a hook staggers in from the outside. “Dad!” We yell, I hurriedly unzip the pod and  run over to him. You almost missed breakfast!” Olive says. “Did you save me some?” He says wiping his brow. “Always” I say as I help him off with his jacket and hang the cable up by the door.
Dad stands in the kitchen scoffing a plate of pancakes and gives us the lowdown.
There’s been some damage but the forecast is looking clearer.
“I think we can still do the supply run together.” He says.
Mum peers out of the kitchen window.” I can see some blue sky, she says.
Dad finishes his last mouthful. “Ok you kids ready? Let’s call in the scouts. “
We grab out coats and go outside.
White clouds drift past us. You can now see the edge of the garden. Dad looks up and cups his hands around his mouth and lets out a high pitched “KRIIIIIIII!!!!”. A dark winged shape overshadows us. Then another and another. Then through the clouds three huge albatross glide in for a landing.

“ Here's our ride” dad says. The birds ruffle  their  feathers and sit obediently As we carefully climb onto their backs. Warm feathers enclose our legs and we wrap our arms around their necks. I smile and look at dad. He winks.
My albatross starts to run towards the edge. I bury my face into feathers afraid to look. Then with a surge I am lifted into the air.  I look across at Olive and dad as they soar up beside me. The wings of my scout stretch out and the wind rushes past. Down below I can now see a big fishing vessel emerge from the blue blanket of the ocean. The albatross pitch and slowly glide down towards the boat. A scruffy bearded man with a yellow raincoat  waves and walks out from the bridge with a basket of fish,lobsters,kelp and even a stingray! “
Our scouts shake their heads and tap their beaks  in unison. Dad dismounts and greets the fisherman.” Hello Sven” says dad. “Quite a storm we had” “Aye a feisty one” says Sven.  “How did you fair up there in the clouds”  he says “not too bad” says dad. We’ve made some improvements to the house”KRII!!, ! ” The albatross shove their heads in the basket and start fighting over the fish. “Hey get out of it!” dad says and takes out three fish and throws them to the birds. Sven puts a cane lid on the basket and clicks the straps to a large saddle which he attaches to dad’s scouts  back while it gobbles up the fish.
“ Now my friend”  says dad “ For your troubles” . He takes out a greenish blue crystal that glints in the sun and hands it to the man. Svens eyes light up. “Umbreon Lumonium”  he says. “What a beautiful specimen”
Next time I will get you three lobster.” Wonderful “
says dad.
“We should get back home to mum, Dad.”  Olive says climbing onto her scout.
Our birds stretch their wings and stamp on the bridge. “Goodbye my friends” says Sven.
The albatross takes a few clumsy steps and lifts off . Then using the wind currents they deliver us safely home. Mum is standing in the garden with the mower and waves. My scout glides in, extends its feet and slowly lands on the grass. There is a bit of a jolt when we land but other than that it is quite smooth.
“ How was your trip?” Mum asks “it’s beautiful down there,'' I say. Dad lifts the basket lid.
“A treat from Sven. I’ll cook. How about Mulligatawny?
“Let’s go check the clouds” says Olive.  The house is steady so we don't need the chairlift this time.
We reach the attic above the stairs and climb a ladder. I push up the trap door and we step out onto a beautiful green platform of flowers and plants. Next to the edge there is a picnic blanket and some cushions we flop down and stretch back and look up at the drifting clouds. The air is cool on our faces. We close our eyes.

“Dinner.” Dad bellows from below. We sit up. I look upon the horizon, below the sea glistens, above the pinkish,reddish sky and in the middle a shining orb slowly sinks and beams of light radiate upwards towards them. I smile “You know…”I say “this is the best part about living on a floating island…”


The End