Write-a-Book-in-a-Day thanks all of the teams for their wonderful books, for the hundreds of sponsors who helped to support children in hospitals in NSW, QLD, VIC, SA, TAS, WA, NT and for the teachers and volunteers who made this event possible.
The Awards for QLD, VIC,SA, TAS, WA were announced on October 27th at 2.00pm at the Boulevard Centre in Floreat. The Awards for NSW will be announced on November 19th at The Children's Hospital at Westmead. Teachers, participants and family are all welcome.
Greenmount Primary School - A Change of Heart
Pymble Ladies College - Cheetah Boy
Martin Chambers's Team - Didge Magic
Winner:
Martin Chambers's Team - Didge Magic
Coming Shortly
No Award
Winner:
Pymble Ladies College - Cheetah Boy
Second Place:
Terra Sancta College - Ira Eliva
Third Place:
Pymble Ladies College - Journey to Kalgoa
No Award
Introduction
What a delight and a thrill to be involved in the judging of such a talented mixture of writers, illustrators, story-weavers and word-smiths. Tales from fantastic lands with mythical creatures and giant squids; mysterious disappearances and untimely deaths. All stories showed wild imagination, a solid sense of storyline with interesting characters, often in a conflicting situation. I was also delighted with the wonderful use of descriptions and images all within the boundaries set by this year's Book in a Day (characters/ setting/ words to be included and issue). Phew! How to decide upon a winner?
Winner - Best Book by a Team from a WA Primary School
Simple is often best and this was the case with the winning entry. The “Awesome Authors” of Greenmount are the worthy winners with their homely tale A Change of Heart. It is the story of a young boy, Zac, who happens to be a TV star, being sent to a country town to spend time with his ageing grandfather. Zac is not happy to be there as he hates hard work. But a scrawny chook becomes his companion and helps Zac understand the value and dignity of his grandfather's pet shop in the small town as they rid his home of termites.
The story begins with Zac's Chevy as it “rumbled down the quiet streets” of the town, and some wonderful description of the “dark, inky brown” walls of the pet shop. The characters were simple and honest. Having only two human characters in the story helped the relationship between grandfather and grandson grow through realistic conversation and everyday situations in a home.
The title, A Change of Heart, perfectly suited the story. It was well written, descriptive and very easy to read and follow. I thoroughly enjoyed the neat presentation as well as the message about caring for each other and being willing to lend a hand. Well done Greenmount Primary School.
Highly Commended
Now for some out of this world experiences! I have chosen three stories to be Highly Commended from the entries. The Golden Egg, written by Coogee Primary School, was an exciting tale of two strangers who meet at the Golden Egg Race and instantly dislike each other. They survive a shark attack and a cyclone to eventually find the egg and fall in love. The story contained great dialogue and tons of excitement in a very attractive presentation. Well done.
The next Highly Commended entry is from the Year 7 boys at Aquinas College Junior School. First thing to strike me was the ominous cover of black with the horrid looking evil clown. In One By One we are transported to a circus where each of the acts begins to disappear. The story leads us through the darkness to follow the evil laughter and screeching tyres until the kidnapper is revealed. A classic tale of horror and mystery. Full of nail-biting scenes.
Dragon Island, by the Moerlina Primary School Team 2, is set in the hard to say Galapagos Islands where a scientist and a butcher meet on a boat. They trek the rocky volcano and discover a lonely dragon searching for the missing pages of his book. These pages will help him learn to fly and become a magical dragon. Some wonderful description of the harsh volcano and the massive dragon, as well as an exciting journey to discover the dragon and finally watch as he flies of to find his mother.
Commended
There were also many stories that I would like to Commend for their creativity and exciting story lines. These teams threaded fantastic tales and often fighting characters as they struggled to overcome their fears and difficulties. I was impressed how each team carefully wove their boundaries, set by Book in a Day, to create such clever, entertaining writing.
The Tree Stump (Corrigin PS) was the emotional tale of a boy who loses his mother and meets a girls who helps him listen to his own heart. A very meaningful tale.
The Painted Face (PLC Junior School) is another circus story where dead bodies turn up under the big top and the detective enlists the help of a talkative ghost to solve the mystery.
Slimy Joe's Story (Moerlina PS Team 1) is the strange tale of worms that guard a secret treasure box at a prison. It is interestingly told from a worm's point of view and full of suspense and drama (and slime).
The Plague (Poynter PS Team 4) is the story of a farmer and his cow who try to rid the land of an insect plague by using loud noise, water pressure and finally flames. It is so exciting they eventually make a movie out of it!
Returning Home (PLC Junior School) is the fun story of a postman and the female PM of Australia who are sucked into a portal to Mars where they enlist the help of aliens to rid the planet of creepy spiders. Eeeeek!
Amaroo Primary School Group 1 told the tale of the Marathon Drama. Sam and his emu join the marathon race where his sister wants him to win at all costs, but Sam has a voice in his head telling him to give the emu to the slowest runner.
The Diary of the Missing Teacher (Amaroo PS Group 2) is the mystery of teachers who disappear at the science fair in a puff of smoke. Will Daisy the sprite be able to save them or will Pete the sailor save the day?
The Accidents (Dongara PS) Jack is a young boy who breaks his ankle playing his football grand final. When Jack gets to hospital, he has to share a room with his worst enemy, John, the school bully. I can't think of anything worse if I'm trying to get better.
The Mysterious Plague of Wong Wong (Dongara PS) An army of cane toads are invading the peaceful village of Wong Wong. Sky and Patrick have an idea to save the day. And they do.
I thoroughly enjoyed the roller-coaster ride of reading the fabulous entries to the 2009 Write a Book in a Day competition. My mind boggled with the unbelievable story lines and fantastic settings for the tales to unravel. I was warmed by the tenderness of some characters and horrified by the greed and nastiness of others. I congratulate our Judge's Winner, our Highly Commended and Commended entrants. Well done to all who contributed and aided these talented students and writers. I look forward to your stories in the future.
[The Primary School Section was judged by Paula Jones who is a teacher, radio announcer, story-writer and poet and is also Chairperson of the Katharine Susannah Prichard Foundation and Writers Centre.]
Introduction
What a pleasure and delight to be involved in the judging of such a talented group of writers, illustrators, story-weavers and word-smiths. It was hard not to be taken away with enchanting tales of far away lands, mysterious disappearances and extraordinary science fiction riddles. Such wonderfully distinct characters too; including psychic mothers, skinheads, soul searching aliens and a magician who could only make magic when he sneezed. All stories showed wild imagination, a solid sense of storyline and place with wonderful dialogue, often in a conflicting situation. The brilliant use of descriptions and images all within the boundaries set by this year's Book in a Day (characters/ setting/ words to be included and issue) were not only remarkable, but as a writer, very inspiring . It’s no wonder that the judging was such a difficult task indeed!
A formal assessment was used to rank books from the outstanding to the satisfactory. Each of the Judges individually rated the submissions and the final score was reached through averaging and the consensus of the committee. All books were scored according to appropriateness for the target age group, the given parameters and competition rules, the economic and concise use of words. The submissions were also judged on how engaging they were and the absence of glaring faults, how well planned and executed the book was and the appropriateness of the illustrations.
[The Secondary School Section was judged by Nadine Browne. Nadine is a published poet and playwright and is also writing a novel. She won the Maj Monologues this year, and is WA’s new young playwright of the year.]
Commended
Christine and Martin by Presbyterian Ladies College
Christine foils the start of an Artificial Intelligence take-over that is causing Martin’s madness by finding and destroying Martin’s iPod. They used the parameters creatively and well and would have scored higher if they had kept one point of view
Metal Mayhem by Wesley College
“then she heard the horrible sound [of the dragon]. The sound that’s like scraping your fingernails on the bottom of a tin mailbox., and the hero Kevin “as forgetful as a goldfish”. Another sci-fi quest across time to kill off a bad dragon. The lovely imagery is was affected in places by the naming difficulty between the good and bad dragon.
Until Midnight by Shenton College
A Halloween where the party-goers become what they are dressed up as. This showed excellent use of dialogue to progress the plot and map the landscape, with lots of excitement and magic. They introduced a new character, Stacy, for the critical knife scene; It would have been stronger with an existing character for whom the reader already had feelings.
The Amazing Space Race by Presbyterian Ladies College/p>
This is a sci-fi quest about an alien who only wanted to find out who he really was. Its energy, using both poetry and prose, carries the reader excitedly from riddle to riddle with an underlying message of trust in one’s self.
Tree Stumps, Broken Harps and a Brother called Penguin by Prendiville Catholic College Smile Savers Team.
The magician who could only make magic when he sneezed made this story come alive, about loss and the mending of a broken harp. A good story although the non-human character could have been more of a character.
Highly Commended
The Warrigal by the Kingsway Christian College
This is an imaginary story of saving the Daintree forest thanks to a werewolf, whose habitat it is, and how the attitudes of woodcutters and land developers change with understanding of an ecosystem. This well structured and consistent story is matched throughout by beautiful and appropriate illustrations.
Pearls of Wisdom by Presbyterian Ladies College
An ingenious treasure hunt from the pool to Broome to Falls Creek to the Australian Aquatic Championships, a necklace of pearls, and a breathtaking courtship that oscillates between desire and dismissal. This has all the ingredients of a great story – suspense, believable characters and unbelievable events, an emotional roller-coater, bound together with a blue ribbon.
The Red Mantis by Shenton College
A thriller set in the Australia, in a Tiger Moth over the Indian Ocean and in the Congo in search of the rare Emerald Rose. This book successfully handled love, jungle chases and a battle scene – the latter being notoriously hard to do – with equal skill. It portrayed interesting and well differentiated characters and a clear sense of place, whether in a pub, up in the air or beside an open-pit mine in the jungle.
I think I’m in love by the Kalgoorlie-Boulder Community School Year 8 Bananas Team
Every now and then a book is written that defies literary conventions but cannot be put down. It succeeds because of its single point of view, of a hospital cook who is at odds with her boss, her mother and a stranger-danger ghost and in love with one of the patients, and because of its delightful teen-rebellion dialogue. It also proves that you don’t have to be in year 12 to write. We look forward to another four books from your team before you leave school.
Driftwood by the Cloudstreeters team at St Stephen’s School in Duncraig.
I loved the way this book oscillated between the story being told by Wilbur (a guinea-pig) and the interjections by his young family, a story of Wilbur’s adventures with Sarah (a human – well, she turns out to be a vampire) when he was young. “’Ahh’, the little ones murmured” on page 14 and so did I and had to read on. This team obviously know about guinea pigs and the Church and caring for others and have turned this knowledge into a book that is full of insights. That is always a winning strategy.
Winner - Best Book by a Team from a WA Secondary School
It is a judge’s delight when presented with so many wonderful stories, any of which could claim the title of the best book, to come across one that instantly makes he/she want to wake their children – and/or the children next door, and all the way down the street – to share the magic. This is one of those books. The central character is a mischievous, manipulating and fun loving sprite who is telling her story of how she changes a mean and miserly Aunt into being loving and considerate – for that was the sprite’s job, to change people for the better. This is a story, in the words of the judging criteria, that can engage all 10-14 yr old readers beautifully and has that special goose-bump factor. It is well planned, without any glaring faults, full of humour, and contains a delightful value-system for how life can work better for everyone with a bit of give and take. The descriptions are tight and vivid – the aunt’s grim house, for example, “It was like someone had taken all of [the homeless person’s] loneliness and built a house of it”, and the monster against whom a game of chess has to be won “a gigantic blob of tangled arms and legs was emerging from the shadows, saliva dripping from its fangs” who is won over by being addressed as “Sir”. He’d never been called “Sir” before. Eventually the Aunt’s niece is rescued from the island where she is being held, thanks to some duck that carry them over the river in exchange for yellow gumboots and marzipan. By the end, everyone, including the sprite is happy, and the aunt discovers the advantages of expressing the love that is really inside her. Congratulations to the Team Flobo from Applecross Senior High School with its book Fiddlesticks.
About the Judge
Dr Julienne Van Loon is a Senior Lecturer in the creative writing program at Curtin University of Technology. She is the author of two novels (Road Story 2005 which won the prestigious Australian/Vogel Award in 2004 and Beneath the Bloodwood Tree 2008 set in the Pilbara) and numerous essays and short stories. She is currently working on a collection of essays regarding philosophy & everyday life and a short novel set in the Perth hills.
Winner - Best Book in the Open Category
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s Book in a Day competition: Martin Chambers, Geoff Chambers, Lynne DePeras, Glen Hunting, Trisha Kotai-Ewers, Yeeda Topham and Karen Dixon. The winning entry is “Didge Magic” - a beautifully illustrated story of a surprising and moving rescue in the North-West of Western Australia. I particularly enjoyed the characterisation in this story, in which two young people strike up a sudden but easy friendship under challenging circumstances. The illustrations are simple but evocative and bring the story vividly to life. Those passages describing the music of the didge and the feeling it casts over the dry, arid landscape are a joy to read. I’m sure the children at Princess Margaret Hospital who read this book will be suitably transported by the story. This book also wins the National Award for the best book in the Open Section.Special Mention
I’d also like to make a special mention of the entry submitted by Carol Astbury, Nigel Barker, Nadine Browne, Michelle Edmonds, Phil Mayne, Tim Nelson and Sarah Ryan, all members of the Katharine Susannah Pritchard Writers’ Centre Thursday Night Group. Their entry, “Morgan and the Millipede,” is a science-fiction story about a teenage boy, Morgan, whose special interest in millipedes leads him into all sorts of trouble at school. Unfortunately this work couldn’t be considered in the running for a prize because the team includes members of the Katharine Susannah Pritchard Management Committee, but I commend the authors for their story, which rockets along with plenty of humour, drama and suspense, and just the right degree of complication.Summary
Completing an illustrated book collaboratively in a single day is a huge challenge and I congratulate all this year’s entrants on the work they have produced. Each and every book had me captivated and left me wondering how the authors managed to do it – producing and illustrating work that carries a consistent voice and a clear purpose while also having to work so quickly as a team. Thank you to the organisers of this year’s competition for all the work you do behind the scenes and for the invitation to judge this year’s award. Dr Julienne van LoonNo award
Introduction
It is a pleasure to see Write-a-Book-in-a-Day being adopted in other States. The teams from Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory competed as a group.Highly Commended.
Riverside School in Tasmania’s The Boundary Line had particularly difficult parameters but managed to sculpt a delightful story melding the setting of a car accident with the issue of sharing a room, in which excellent dialogue was used to show its human characters move from attitudes of intense dislike to respect and love. This was charmingly done with two quite distinct voices for the movie star and the skinhead. It was a pity the team was not able to weave the same magic with their non-human character. The crafting of the dramatic tension, as the characters gradually learnt more about each other and themselves leading to the heart-moving twist at the end, was very well done.
Winner - Best Book by a School not in NSW or WA
Melbourne School’s A Ghostly Affair has all the ingredients of a children’s story with a mix of love – the exquisite little dragon – and horror – the bathroom that squirts water and filth at workers trying to demolish a hotel – and mystery – the psychic mum who eventually offers the ghost of the hotel caretaker a new home in a bottle so that they can all live happily ever after. All objects in this story, as well as people and ghosts, appear as distinct and vivid characters – the hotel, mum’s house, a toilet bowl and everything else – and feed the imagination as the plot progresses. I also loved the delicate pen and ink drawings that complemented the story.
No award
Introduction
I had a wonderful time looking at the vast range of illustrations! In judging the them I looked at the design and composition of each drawing and how they enhanced the overall presentation of the book. I looked at technical skills like drawing and painting ability and clever use of colour and materials. I favoured illustrations which reproduced clearly so that the reader is able to fully appreciate the detail. Sometimes a good drawing was disadvantaged because it was too small to see properly. Occasionally good illustrations inside the book were let down by a weaker cover. Most importantly I was drawn to those books whose illustrations helped to tell the story best. But above all I was looking for originality: those illustrations which gave the book that wow! factor.
[The Illustrations were judged by Joanna Lefroy-Capelle who has had exhibitions in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth and is one of the Australian artists exhibiting her work, for the second time, at the Florence Biennale in December.]
Highly Commended
Amaroo Primary School: ‘The Diary of the Missing Teachers’
Some lovely detailed drawings with vibrant colour. A couple of illustrations were too small to see clearly and the cover would have worked better with a little less detail.
Poynter Primary School: ‘The Plague’
Large expressive drawings, filling the page, with some excellent detail and a strong sense of composition.
Greenmount Primary: ‘A Change of Heart’
Some delightful, beautifully detailed and executed drawings, however 3 were a little too pale to be able to see them properly, including the cover.
Wnner - Best Illustrations by a Team from a Primary School in WA
Aquinas College: ‘One By One’
Very impressive hard cover with wonderful expressive double page illustration on the inside cover. Most professional. Strong sense of design and composition and large enough to really appreciate. Illustrations contained humour and movement and really enhanced the story.
Commended
Melville Senior High: ‘Attack Of The Killer Plants’
Beautifully drawn with a stunning cover and excellent, detailed illustrations, well executed. However, could have done with one or two more to create the greatest impact.
Highly Commended
Christmas Island DHS: ‘Collision’
Quite original with exciting vibrant colour and clever use of collage and bold cutout figures. Large illustrations which filled each page with the text printed over them. Unfortunately one illustration was a little too overpowering and blocked out some of the text, but overall the images made you want to turn the pages.
Christmas Is DHS: ‘Mind Games – Prisoner Of The Mind’
Large strong and expressive illustrations, again filling each page with the text over the top. Great use of collage and colour. However, the cover didn’t come up to the standard of the rest of the book.
Winner - Best Illustrations by a Team from a Secondary School in WA
Kingsway Christian College: ‘You’re Not Funny’
Original and sophisticated illustrations featuring very clever use of collage and beautifully simple but stunning compositions and colour which gave the illustrations maximum impact. They created a strong sense of continuity throughout the book and gave the whole publication a very professional edge.
Winner - Best Illustrations by a Team in the Open Category
Martin Chambers Team: ‘Didge Magic’
Delightfully simplistic drawings using clever monochromatic mixture of coloured pencil and bold texta. Strong expressive images throughout the book which created continuity and an excellent flow to the text.
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