NNFN Competition Winners!!
National Non-Fiction November Competition Winners
We were excited to see so much evidence of children enjoying reading, researching, writing and illustrating their own nonfiction in the 800 plus entries submitted by schools from all over the country. Because we received so many entries for the 8-10 category, our wonderful sponsors, Welbeck Children’s Publishing, agreed to add an extra prize by dividing the category into Interviews with Animals and Interviews with Historical Characters. The FCBG judges still found choosing the shortlists incredibly difficult because of the consistently high standard of all the entries. And when the guest judges came to look at the 40 shortlisted Interviews, they were so impressed that they added an additional prize, this time for the competition’s overall winner, which they chose from the 5-7 entries. We are now delighted to reveal our 5 magnificent winners with comments by Andy Seed, Nick East and Gareth Conway:
5-7 Interview with King John by Christopher (Chandlings Prep School)
The judges were very taken with his entry which they described as ‘so funny and well-constructed’.
8-10 (Historical) Interview with Rosa Parks by Angelina (Town Farm Primary)
Gareth commented ‘it is well written, witty, informative and enjoyable to read. I particularly liked the drawings, and the portrait of Rosa is so good.’
8-10 (Animal) Interview with a Leopard by Esmé (Edge Grove School)
Nick commented ‘this is such an entertaining piece of work, full of facts and humour and a beautiful illustration to boot. She’d also carefully considered the layout, which is incredible.’
11-12 Interview with Shakespeare by Roberta (Kendrick School)
Andy thought that ‘Roberta’s interview was outstanding. She was one of the only young writers to play with the concept of time travel as part of the piece, and did this amusingly too. The interview is superbly written, really letting the subject tell us a lot and giving Shakespeare a witty imaginative voice.’
The interviews by Cerys (Birch Copse Primary School), Muhammed (Moorlands Primary School) and Gracie (St Mary’s Primary School, Cumbria) were also highly commended.
Overall winner Interview with a Penguin by Elena (Hillside Primary School)
Selected from the 5-7 category.
The judges’ formal citation says that ‘Elena’s interview with a penguin was outstanding. This was funny, clever and gave the dandy Emperor Penguin such a memorable character, telling us lots of interesting facts along the way. Her illustration was brilliant too.’
Andy also commented that the interview ‘perfectly combines fun, facts and feathers to give the reader something genuinely entertaining and interesting. I would have been happy to write this myself.’ Wow!
Congratulations to everyone who entered and to all the brilliant winners! Signed bundles of books will soon be winging their way to the five winners and a visit by Andy Seed to the school of the overall winner will be arranged in the near future. Watch is space for a full report! Thank you once again to Andy, Nick and Gareth, and Welbeck Children’s Publishing for helping to make this year’s competition so successful.