Award-winning children’s author visits Wolverhampton to announce winners of competition inspiring children to read for pleasure

More than 500 children in years three to 11 from across Wolverhampton entered this year’s Wolverhampton Young Authors’ Prize competition.

They submitted original short stories based around the theme of ‘hope’.

There were 108 finalists from Wolverhampton Grammar School, Christ Church Junior School, Highfields School, Caldmore Primary Academy, Codsall High School, Beacon Hill Academy, Poole Hayes Academy and St Jude’s CofE Academy, who were invited to attend the grand final held at Wolverhampton Grammar School on Tuesday.

Award-winning children’s author, Cliff McNish, attended the event to share his advice with the budding young authors.

He also announced the winners who shall have their stories recorded as audio books by Cliff himself, who is best-known for his debut fantasy series The Doomspell Trilogy, which has been published in 26 languages worldwide.

There were winners in three categories.

Dylan Midha, from Wolverhampton Grammar School, won in the year three to five category; Sophia Bains, from Christ Church Junior School, took the prize for the year six to eight category and Sophie Morgans, from Codsall High School, was the winner of the year nine to 11 category.

Three runners-up were also announced, alongside four ‘highly commended’ stories.

The prize, which is in its third year, was created by Wolverhampton Grammar School librarians Zoe Rowley and Duncan McAllister to inspire children and young people across the region to read and write for pleasure.

The school's head librarian Ms Rowley said: “We were delighted to see hundreds of young people from across Wolverhampton enter this year's competition.

"The 400 word challenge encouraged young people to showcase their writing skills and create a unique story.

"It was a pleasure to meet over 100 finalists for the competition at Wolverhampton Grammar School.

"To hear their winning stories performed by award-winning author Cliff McNish, will be a memory that these children will cherish for a lifetime.

"We hope that this year's competition has inspired young people to continue reading and writing for pleasure.”