BBC 500 Words 2018: Finalists Part 1 (Age 7-9)

Dr Simon Reads… 500 Words 2018

The final 50 stories are now up for the 2018 run of the BBC 500 Words Competition.

For more information on the 500 Words competition see my post on the 2017 awards; but in brief it’s a creative writing competition run by the BBC for children aged 5-13, who can any kind of story they like, as long as it is within 500 words. Three winners from each of the two age categories (5-9 and 10-13) get their stories read out by a famous actor in a live final, plus win a big stack of books. Since its inception in 2011 it’s grown massively with tens of thousands of entries each year.

In each of these ruminations I look at the winning stories, and the celebrity reading, but I encourage you to also check out the other 48 finalists for each year; the writing on display is often breath-takingly good. (http://bbc.in/2pWJLrW).

This year I’m going to do something slightly different – give a brief description and discussion of each of the finalists, but by bit, and at the end make my predictions for winning stories, who are announced on the 8^th of June. After, I’ll probably do something similar to the previous years and discuss the winners and their celebrity readers in a little more depth, plus I’ll be able to see how good (or more likely not) my predictions were.

Ages 5-9 (Part 1)

A Monstrous Voyage by Sanjeev Kashev – a dramatic and atmospheric tale of a sailing ship caught in a storm and the rising of the Kraken. Shades of Pirates of the Caribbean in this one, I think.

A polite but demanding letter to Mrs Theresa May by Cara Bell – an epistolary story in which a tennis ball writes a letter to the Prime Minister asking for a referendum to end cruelty to tennis balls (being smashed in the face by Andy Murray, chewed by dogs etc.). Some fun political satire about the Brexit referendum as well.

Bob and the Plastic Pirates by Hector Godden – another tale of a sea monster, but this one is a comic tale of eco-awareness with pirates battling a monster made of waste plastic. Very of the zeitgeist, and bonus points for the neologism “screamiggle” – a scream of terror mixed with a giggle of excitement.

Cameron the Chameleon by Yuna Vavrovsky – Cameron the Chameleon hates thathis colour changes are at the whims of his emotions, but his friend Bepsy the Butterfly encourages him to embrace this as a good thing. A charming little tale of acceptance and self-worth.

Charles the Talented Chicken by Charlotte Hessey – a comic story about a girl called Amy who discovers that her pet chicken Charles can not only talk but is a talented writer. I won’t give away the ending here, but you might be able to guess the nom de plume taken by Charles Chicken…

Granny’s Hip Replacement by Xuki Ziner – stories about super-active grandparents are always fun. In this one, Granny breaks her while hip base-jumping and gets a solid gold replacement, leading to adventures with a robber. Some great comic moments, the ending is so over-the-top silly it made me laugh out loud.

Hairy’s Ocean Adventures by Hattie Minto – a full-on fantastic tale about Hairy the Yeti who lives on the sea in a giant teacup, and his adventure with a book-stealing sea monster. It has a sweet little moral about friendship and sharing.

King Onion – A Legend is Born by Nate Mackereth – If the last one was full of crazy inventiveness, that’s nothing on Nate’s story about a spring onion accidentally brought to life by aliens that becomes a karate-kicking Elvis-impersonator. Totally bonkers fun!

My Journey to Ambis by Evelyn Hamer – Muna, the Egyptian moon goddess is lonely – shut in her temple by day, alone in the sky at night. Her anger accidentally makes the day stop coming, but her brother Re helps her make friends with Ambis, goddess of night creatures. A clever myth-based tale, with the unspoken moral that you need to go out and try if you want to make friends.

Nick’s Shrinking Adventure – by Darcy Taylor – a poem, unusually, in which a young boy Nick and his Teddy save the Earth from an alien invasion by inverting a shrinking ray. Or is it all just his dreams?...

Oak Tree by Jackson Layton-Henry – A gentle story about an oak tree and its friendship (of a sort) with two children. Oak Tree makes a great sacrifice to help the children, and the story takes a sad turn before ending on a happier note. I am Groot.

Sam and Oren’s Great Adventure by Aidan Hall – Sam encounters Oren, his tooth fairy, and ends up having to help Oren get home through a series of scary magical adventures in a miniature quest story. Some lovely imaginative touches.

Strictly Vegetables by Molly Roberts – a great fun spoof on Strictly Come Dancing featuring alliterative vegetable dances. I liked how the Craig Reville Horwood charcter (Craig Lemon Horwood) was the typically nasty judge giving low scores and complaining that tomatoes are fruit. The losers get eaten!

The Architect by Nate Markson – A brief biography of a boy named Fyon, from birth through school. All Fyon wants to do is build things, there’s a great repetitive device where each level of school wants to pass him off to the next to get him out of their way. But Fyon’s architectural skills come to the fore when he rebuilds the school, so all ends well!

The Bug Who Mugged the Pug by Ryan Early – another poem, with some good scansion about a cello-playing dandy pug and thieving bug that overestimates his size. Very good use of language.

That’s just over half of the Age 5-9 entries. Stand-Outs so far – A Polite but Demanding Letter to Mrs Theresa May is good, especially for Jamie Murray accidentally smacking himself in the nuts. King Onion and Strictly Vegetables have some wonderful comic invention, Oak Tree is a touching story and The Bug Who Mugged the Pug has some great language, and it would be nice for a poem to win something one of these years. Also of particular note are My Journey to Ambis, Granny’s Hip Replacement and Charles the Talented Chicken; it’s tough to choose between all of these to be honest!