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Posted on April 27th 2023
Oliver, Year 7, Wins Nicola Garrard’s '29 Locks' Writing Competition
Congratulations to Oliver in Year 7 for winning our library’s writing competition based on Nicola Garrard’s novel 29 Locks.
Children were asked to either write a story based on the characters of 29 Locks or write their own original story based on an interesting experience in their life. Oliver, using the latter prompt, decided to write the story of when his family went to visit The Big Buddha in Thailand and encountered an elephant.
The story includes impressive vocabulary, detailed descriptions and even some dialogue. Though Oliver is in Year 7, his sophisticated writing style belies his age.
For his writing, Oliver won an exclusive 29 Locks t-shirt, gifted by the author herself on her visit to the school and a gift voucher. Well done Oliver for your efforts and we are happy to publish an extract from his story for you to read and enjoy below.
The Tale of the Furious Thai Elephant
By Oliver, Year 7
Beads of sweat rolled down my tomato-red cheeks. Elbows jutted out from all around: spears in a fierce battle, and the growling of a struggling engine was a menace, accompanying every breath, every move. And we thought the tube was bad! Incessant groans and moans began to ring inside my ears. There was a putrid stench of sweat, and you could taste the humidity. When would this torture end?
“Is this really worth it for a lump of stone?” I moaned.
“Urm, it’s called the…” An arm stretched over my mother’s face, before being shoved away in fury. “Big Buddha,” she sighed.
I rolled my eyes: we’ve seen the Big Buddha before! Anyhow, I persevered.
After what seemed like an eternity, the comically miniscule bus rolled to a stop, audibly sighing in relief. The doors slid (painfully) open, leaving us free. Even the most seasoned travellers were thankful to still be alive! There we saw it: The Big Buddha. It bathed in its glory and watched over the whole island – its authority worth more than a thousand police officers. We entered almost falling to our knees in awe. The buddha gave us a knowing smile, they’d seen this a million times before. The buddha even had a gift shop at its base! After too many photos, a dozen shopping bag and a durian ice cream gone wrong, it was finally time to depart and make the most arduous journey back home.
“Wait Daddy, it’s an elephant!” my delighted sister exclaimed.
Now, my sister can be deceiving, but sure enough, there sat three elephants in a pen, with huge eyes and cuteness that drew us in like thick ropes. Even my steel-hearted father was defeated by the adorable elephants. We found ourselves next to the enclosure, and we took a closer look at the elephants, we took pity on the tree elephants as their enclosure was awfully small, they were imprisoned with shackles and they seemed malnourished. There was a little calf, giving us a small trumpet in a cry for help. We realised that we could only fix one of the problems facing the elephants, and it was to do with food…
Well done to all the boys that entered the competition. Be sure to be on the lookout for many other competitions that the library will be holding soon.
Junette Norman, Librarian
