Dr Simon Reads… BBC 500 Words: 2020 Final (Children's Writing Contest)

Dr Simon Reads… 500 Words 2020 Final

Hopefully you know the drill by now, how 500 Words is a writing context for children aged 5-13 organised by the BBC, started by Breakfast Radio host Chris Evan (not the Captain America one) and now continued by his successor to the same slot, Zoe Ball, patronised by Camilla Duchess of Cornwall and offering a stack of books, tours of UK landmarks and a personalised illustration by a well-known children’s illustrator to the six winners.

If not, see my introductory post here. Check out this year’s fifty finalists here (http://bbc.in/2pWJLrW).

This year’s final was definitely a reflection of 2020 so far. Not only was it held via Zoom, thanks to coronavirus, but it was also more ethnically diverse not only in the celebrity readers but also in the representation of the winners. A good year for the boys this year, and most of them with clever sensitive tales rather than the entertainingly comic.

Oh. And should I mention that I guessed every winner this year? I know I choose so many options that it’s kind of cheating to say so, but I want my tiny bit of glory, damn it!

Age 5-9 Bronze Winner
Roary and the Giant Bloomers by Taylor F
“My name is James and I have a pet, but this is a pet like no other... He's a dinosaur! A few months ago, Mum and Dad took me to Dino World so I could choose a pet, I chose Roary. The Dino-keeper whispered in my ear, "Good choice, he can talk!" My mouth fell open.”

Last year there was a winning story about pants, and a winning story about a T Rex, so why not combine them both? Roary is a friendly talking T Rex with a strange fondness for laundry, but his fearsome appearance puts people off visiting his young owner/playmate James, the narrator.

Until, that is, Roary’s quick thinking saves old Mrs Bird (who is “about 125 years old”) from her burning house by using a pair of her huge pants as a catch net. James and Roary are rewarded for their life-saving, and everyone realises Roary isn’t so bad after all.

Taylor conjures up some real laugh-out-loud moments of absurdity, such as when Roary goes for a ride in the washing machine with Dad’s old socks, or Mrs Bird excitedly trampolining on her giant knickers. This one was read by Jodie Whittaker who uses all the breathless excitement of the Thirteenth Doctor to really bring the story to life.

Watch her here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08gr3sx

Age 10-13 Bronze Winner
SHOO! By Lola B
“Hi, I'm Ozzie and, well, I'm a FLY! My story starts 24 hours ago when I graduated from Bluebottle Academy...
"Congratulationzzz on pazzing your Pesky Zertificate, it only seemz like yezterday when you hatched but it'z actually been 18 dayz!" said Professor Buzzel.”

A clever comic tale narrated by Ozzie the Bluebottle as attempts to put his fly training into practice by annoying as many humans as possible within 24 hours without getting swatted. A picnic provides the perfect opportunity for him to wreak mayhem. A fly’s life is not a happy one, though, as his celebratory flight lands him in bigger ttrouble…

There’s a great narrative voice to this, kinetic and manic, and the reported speech of the flies is atmospheric too. A really good conjuration from a different perspective. This one is read by actor Alfred Enoch, who played Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter films (I’m guessing he’s done other stuff since growing up). He’s good, but for me personally I think he slightly overdoes the replacing “z” for sibilants, as Lola only does this for direct speech, not the narrative. And also a bit overcooked on the slightly crazed quavering voice as well; it detracts from the story a bit for my tastes; I think Lola’s writing stands on its own merits.

Watch Alfred here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08gr34p

Age 5-9 Silver Winner
The Old Rabbit by Lenny T
“Patrick (Pat) the rabbit was very sad. He was very old, his fur was grey on his paws and around his mouth and his bones were aching. His baby rabbits had all grown up and moved away and had bunnies of their own, his mum and his dad had died many years ago and he missed talking to them but most of all he missed his lovely wife Pearl, all the time.”

Pat the Old Rabbit is tired and weary of running from the farmer. One day he goes to sleep in the old barn and wakes up in a bright sunny place where he feels young again, and all of the rabbits he’s lost are with him again, especially his beloved wife Pearl. I think you might be able to guess what’s happened. Lenny’s lovely sensitive writing is sure to move you, as it did many Twitter users who all found something in their eye. It’s a bit like Fionn’s story about the Little Robin from last year, another great young talent.

This was read by Joanna Lumley, and her voice like a bath in warm honey is perfect for capturing the heartwarming tenderness of the story.

Watch it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08gr3j5

Age 10-13 Silver Winner
For The Last Time by Ellie A
“"For the last time...will you please place it on the table" her Mother said quietly. Her brothers and sisters were happily playing upstairs but as the eldest she was expected to help, so she carefully and proudly lifted the shiny silver menorah from its place on the sideboard and put it in pride of place in the centre of the table.”

Powerful stuff from Ellie, as we are told the story of Jewish family preparing and enjoying a traditional Sabbath meal, with tantalising descriptions of latkes and other foods. But there’s a lurking shadow, seen in Mother’s tense manner, and in the Grandmother’s interrupted comment about something happening to the Rosens. And by the end of the story it becomes apparent what it is, and when the story is set, as the family is loaded into the back of trucks by German soldiers.

Brr. Dark and mature, and one thing I loved about this story was the stylistic use of the same phrase as the first and last lines of the story, the first as a mother’s exasperation, the last as something much more sinister.

This was read by Mwaksy Mudenda, a presenter from pereniall children’s TV show Blue Peter. She’s not as polished as former presenter Barney Harwood, veteran of 500 Words, was; she sounds much too much like she’s just reading the story with very little emotion to it

Watch it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08gr468

Age 5-9 Gold Winner
The Winning Goal by Sachar A
“I lumber into my scruffy tent and dive onto my decaying sheets. I wish I was a real footballer, then we could afford to live in a proper house. Not in a lousy refugee camp!”

Fajar is a young Syrian girl living in a refugee camp and dreaming of being a footballer, much to her mother’s despair. But when they are driven out of their camp in the night by a bombing raid, Fajar’s footballing skills come in handy when she manages to get them some figs with an old can and a well-placed kick.

Powerful stuff, almost like a mini-bildungsroman as Fajar starts the story with her youthful fantasies and ends it recognising her present responsibilities. The use of the occasional Arabic word really gives the writing a good local flavour, and Sachar brings a real maturity to the writing.

This one was read by pop singer Dua Lipa, and to be honest, she probably ought to stick to singing; she makes it all very flat. You might find the BBC Drama Company reading to be better, this one needs someone with range to portray the changing moods.

You can watch it here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08gr2cb

Age 10-13 Gold Winner
The Diary of a £5 Note by Vishal S
“DAY 1
Born today! But why am I here? All I know: I emerged from this machine, which printed two UGLY images on me. On one side, a rather fancy-looking woman and on the other a stern, grumpy, balding man. NOT the look I would have chosen...”

A superb story in the style of a diary (in my preview posts I pondered if there was special word for stories written in the style of a diary, and I can’t find one. I might have been thinking of “epistolary novels” written as an exchange of letters, but diaries … considering how many there are, from Mr Pooter to Gogol to Adrain Mole to Bridget Jones).

Anyway, Vishal’s narrator is a freshly minted £5 note, pondering on the nature of its existence as it undergoes a series of ignominious events including getting dropped on the pavement, chewed by a toddler and being part of a bank robbery. Throughout, though, the fiver wonders what the meaning of its life is, until an act of charity finally gives it a sense of purpose.

Some fine comic writing, with a deftly touching ending that not only considers the purpose of money but also of humanity, without being too heavy-handed about it, giving the story a depth beyond the simple sequence of events.

This is read by David Walliams, by now surely a 500 Words fixture, and rightly so. He’s the perfect choice for stories that mix comedy and pathos (much like his own writing), and also has the acting chops to get the timing perfect. Loved it.

Watch the story here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08gr3m4

Closing Thoughts

I really enjoyed the stories in this year’s final, every one a worthy winner, and there’s something I noticed this year that I hadn’t before, perhaps because of the background of current events, and that’s how the stories have a strong theme of inclusivity running through them.

In some cases, it’s more overt. We can easily see the effects of man’s inhumanity to man in the rounding up of the Jewish family in For The Last Time, or the Syrian civil war in The Winning Goal, but we also see it in Roary the T Rex getting rejected because of his appearance, or of how the £5 note finds meaning and purpose in being used to help an old homeless man.  We also see it, to an extent, in how Pat the Rabbit and Ozzie the Fly are persecuted by humans merely for existing.

But actually, that theme has been there for longer. Annabel the Poo Fairy faces ostracism for being different, the character in Dancing in the Streets is a victim of an unequal society, we see homelessness and poverty again in The Kindest of Strangers, Miss RR Hood refuses to consider the feelings of her woodland neighbours. Going back to 2016 one could argue that L’il Piggy is an avenging outsider fighting back against those who victimise his “people”, or the Grannies Who Flew To The Moon do so because they are forgotten and ignored by society. In 2015, even though they are told in a comic fashion, the Londoner Pigeon and the head louse narrator of Fight For Life are once again outsiders treated as nuisances at best, to be exterminated at worst, as is Marvin the Minotaur in 2015. Not to mention the various characters with disabilities, from stuttering to blindness, throughout the years, who get to articulate their experiences.

I suppose it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise; not only are children far more keyed in to current events than I think they are sometimes credited for, but children’s fiction throughout the years has loved the outcast, the marginalised, the underdog from abused orphan Harry Potter to troubled Tracy Beaker. Long may it continue.

Added in Edit:
Pretty much the day after I posted this, a new iteration of 500 Words was announced, back with Chris Evans at his new home on Virgin Radio. It's a Black Lives Matter specific version, with the results announced later this year. All the other particulars remain the same, check it out here https://500words.me/

I have mixed feelings about this; as I noted above one of the interesting things about this year was the diversity in not only the writers but also in the stories told, but to be honest, most winners in previous years have been from nice white middle class families, so encouraging a greater divesity in the authors is a good thing. I daresay it's a mix of factors - the nice white middle class families obviously have the kind of family life that allows for, and encourages, reading and writing, but perhaps also once that becomes entrenched it becomes less encouraging for BAME kids to even consider submitting stories, who knows.

I'm unsure, though, about giving the competition a particular (topical) theme. Most of the time the children pick up on topical themes anyway and incorporate them; there's a whiff of bandwagon jumping to this move that I'm not convinced is the best thing for the competition.

Still, that said, I can only welcome and encourage greater diversity to the stories told, and also the fact that it means another round of 500 Words stories before year's end - finally 2020 offers something good!