COMPETITION: Halloween spooky story contest winner chosen (From News Shopper)
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COMPETITION: Halloween spooky story contest winner chosen
2:44pm Tuesday 27th October 2009 in Competitions
Halloween spooky story competition winner Holly Roberts, aged 10 BR14783 Buy this photo »
ORPINGTON schoolgirl Holly Roberts was the winner of the Halloween story competition run by News Shopper and The Walnuts shopping centre.
The contest for nine to 11-year-old children, which asked them to complete a story from a spooky opening segment, attracted 60 entries.
A shortlist was drawn up from the submitted stories based on spelling and grammar, plotline and creativity.
Seven finalists were invited to The Walnuts for a prize presentation.
The winning entry was chosen by a panel of judges which included News Shopper web manager Simon Bull, mayor of Bromley Councillor Douglas Auld and Walnuts centre manager Martin Price.
Ten-year-old Holly’s story about a pumpkin-headed boy called Cody was chosen as the winner for being imaginative, well structured and above all very creepy.
She said the inspiration for the tale came from wanting to include a pumpkin as a character and also trying to make it as scary as possible.
Holly, who attends Tubbenden Junior School in Orpington, was presented with a star award, selection of books and limited edition Pooh figurine from The Gift Outlet at The Walnuts.
The other six finalists each received a book and certificate.
They were Fay Gibson, Megan Moss, Kehinde Suliaman, Lois Marks, Alfie Hampton and Rebecca Panayi.
Local author Priscilla Winn (above), who was also one of the judges, read out the winning story.
Afterwards she said the standard of entries had been very good, adding: “It shows that creative writing is still going strong.”
Cllr Auld said: “All the stories were excellent and it was extremely difficult judging a winner.
“The entries showed the talent, skill and imagination of children in completing the story.”
Click here to read Holly's winning spooky Halloween story
