Online writing challenge winner announced

Planet Classroom Network and Book Creator teamed up to launch the Book Creator Writing Challenge, inviting storytellers aged 11–18 from all over the world to enter. The challenge asked students to create a one-page storybook with a cover illustration and submit footage of themselves reading it. The result was 480 entries submitted from 25 countries across the world, including Guatemala, Thailand, Poland and Egypt.

A panel of judges from Book Creator team and Planet Classroom scored the books based on the following criteria:

• Idea/concept: How original is the story? Does it stand out from the others? (30 points)
• Design: How creative have they been with the layout? Have they balanced decisions about font choice, colour, use of multimedia? (10 points)
• Communication: Have they clearly communicated the concept and characters in the story? Have they successfully conveyed drama, suspense, humour, etc? The judges were looking for well-chosen words, speech and illustrations that bring the book to life. (10 points)
   

Submissions were narrowed down to a shortlist of 10 finalists and then five judges scored the books out of 50, giving a total score of 250.

The winning entry was ‘As Flames Rise’, written by Cate Cole, age 11, from Massachusetts in the United States. You can read her story online here.

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/myboys.me