by Liv Packer, 11, London
UNDER 12 WINNER
I have sat on this dusty shelf for decades—33 years to be exact. Everyday, people saunter into the library, hoping to find a book to occupy themselves with. No one seems to want me though. Young children walk across the aisles ignoring me and running to the well known favourites. I would highly doubt you would ever want to read me, let alone know I existed. Considering I haven’t been touched for at least 20 years, I’m shocked that I haven’t been moved to the back yet. That’s where the forgotten books go. Oh! I spoke too soon!
THE JUDGES SAID…
We love how Liv has chosen to write her story from an unconventional perspective: that of a book. It’s a creative and fun decision, and one that encourages readers to view the objects in their own surroundings in a different light.
We also greatly like the book’s delivery of its tale—whether one reads its self-assessment as lugubrious or merely matter of fact, there is no denying that the author provides her subject with a distinctive voice, even within a very limited word count.
Many of our entries from Under-12s were inventive and engaging. Something that made this particular story stand out, however, was the writer’s consistent style and clever structuring, involving a set-up and a small twist at the end. It’s quietly sophisticated and a great example of a story told effectively in few words.
LIV SAID…
For my story, I wanted to personify an object and let it be the main character. I usually write about humans but I wanted to give something else a chance. I looked around, thinking about different objects I could be the perspective of. I thought utensils, the sky, even an ant, but I settled on a book.
I made it old and crinkled, but gave it cold, lonely emotions. I wanted to make it the opposite of the well known saying, “an old book is a loved book”. In my story, it wasn’t and I needed to
