Two young authors this week bagged first prize in the Fostering Network’s storytelling competition with gripping tales of friendship against the odds.
Award-winning author and competition judge Jacqueline Wilson OBE presented a digital camera each to Ellie Holland, seven, and Hazel Dawson, 10, at HSBC’s headquarters in Canary Wharf. Runners up received signed copies of Jacqueline Wilson’s books, donated by publisher Random House. She said that their stories were ‘truthfully, the best I have ever read.’
Jacqueline used the Fostering Network’s website to write the introduction to a story about her famous character Tracy Beaker, and invited children in foster care, and sons and daughters of foster carers, to write the rest of the chapter.
Thirty children, from as far apart as Devon and Aberdeen, were short listed and attended the event on the 41st floor of the Norman Foster designed HSBC tower on Thursday 27 March, accompanied by their foster carers or parents.
The winning entries will be published in the next issue of Foster Care magazine.
Jacqueline also revealed that her next book, published next February, is called Tracy Beaker’s Thumping Heart and tells the story of what happens to her on Valentine’s Day.