MyChild's Story competition - the winners are announced!

We had some incredible entries for our storytelling competition to mark National Storytelling Week, and it's been a tough job but we've chosen the winning stories.

Thank you for all your amazing entries for our storytelling competition. We had a wonderful time reading through all these imaginative stories of aliens, ghosts, cats, monsters and more.

The quality of the stories was so high that we decided to offer two prizes, split into categories - 10 and over and 10 and under.

And the winners are...
 

10 and over - Thomas Walsh, 14, for his apocalyptic story of seeing a city destroyed.

10 and under - James Henderson, six, for his scary story about a ghost and a cat.

Read on for the winners' fantastic stories...
 

The Storm

By Thomas Walsh

It came out of nowhere, as I looked out of my hotel window towering over the streets of London, I watched in awe as a lightening storm struck over the city.  Through the foggy and cold streets were nearly deserted it was fun at first to watch the people below scattering like ants to safety and shelter.  People were covering their heads with bags and umbrellas trying to escape the roar of the thunder and the pelting rain. 

High above the city looking out towards Big Ben, it didn’t seem real, as a bolt of lightening seemed to aim directly at the London Eye, sending it up into flames.   I closed my eyes for a moment as I realized that this new proud landmark was about to be destroyed in one swift moment.  As the large metal structure swayed and burnt, I held my breath, watching it topple over almost drunk and fall towards the Thames disintegrating as it fell.  Hitting the water in one agonizing crash, a raging wall of water swelled up and swept sideways towards Parliament.   I could only imagine the terror of those on that side of the river, as the torrent of water flowed over the banks and engulfed those once proud buildings.  The lightening rained down on the city, hitting other buildings every so often,  leaving smoking embers as a marker of its journey across the landscape.

I could see the flash of lights from the emergency services,  and knew that they would be hopeless against the water and flames which had torn through the streets only minutes before.  Orange flames showed that London was burning once more.

Directly beneath me, I could see people panicked by the smell and noise, rushing up from the tube station and into the streets.  Scrabbling and fighting, trying to escape the relentless pounding of the thunder and the dry sizzle of the lightening. 

Still I couldn’t tear myself away, I knew that there was no where to go that was any safer than where I stood, so I watched as London exploded before my eyes.
 

The ghost and the cat

By James Henderson
 

It came out of nowhere.  A ghost, in the middle of the night in the street.  A little man was out with his cat. He was feeling afraid because the ghost looked fierce. The ghost looked like a shuddering mound in the shadows.  The ghost started to yawn, the man started to run but it was foggy and he couldn't see where he was running. The cat was not afraid. He pounced on the ghost and put muddy footprints all over his eyes so he couldn't see.  The ghost stumbled into a tree and the tree swallowed him up.  He fell down, down into its roots until he was buried inside the tree. He shouted "Help me" but there was nobody there, not even a cat.

 Find out more about Booktrust's work to encourage a love of literacy here.