Stories about heroic pigeons, poisoned cakes and living with a stammer were among the winners at this year’s 500 Words competition.
Now in its fifth year, the BBC Radio 2 contest challenges under-13s to write a story about any fictional topic.
A record 120,421 entries were received, with thousands of volunteers helping to whittle down the entries.
Chris Evans unveiled the six young winners in a live broadcast from St James’s Palace.
“Every single young writer in this competition deserves a round of applause, a hats off and a whopping well done for creating such sensational stories,” he said.
“They’ve all been so moving,” said teacher Jen Morgan, who helped judge the prize. “It’s just a privilege to read some of them.”
The winners were:
10-13 years category
Gold: Amabel Smith (10) – It’s A Wide World
Silver: Hannah Sennouni (12) – Londoner Pigeon
Bronze: Lara Akhurst (11) – Blue
5-9 years category
Gold: Sofia Zambuto (9) – Fight For Life
Silver: Robyn Fielding (8) – The Word That Wouldn’t Come Out
Bronze: Emily Potts (9) – Cake Wars
Sofia Zambuto’s gold award-winning story recounted a mother’s desperate attempt to save her family from what appears to be a tsunami.
“Children we must move now,” she wrote. “We must leave our home now. We must find a new home. The wave, the flood is coming again. Run with me now, as fast as your legs will carry you. Follow me now.”
Judge Charlie Higson said the nine-year-old had “managed to achieve a piece of mature action writing, which is a very difficult thing to do well,” and praised the “fantastic twist”.
Zambuto had missed the deadline for the 2014 competition by 30 seconds. “I’m kind of pleased I missed it now,” she laughed.
BBC