I recently judged a writing contest for an elemtary school, and I found a writer... a real writer. A million people are born with talent; this one already has turned it to skill.
His story is called The Oak Cupboard, and it was an urban fantasy. No, it's not perfect, but the problems were minor, and of the sort I'd be willing to fix if the story was a stand-out. He touched on the required themes and included the two lines required by the contest--not as an afterthought but as an integral part of the story. It had humor, speculative elements, believable characters, a good hook, forshadowing, and decent world-building. It showed rather than told. The use of effective characterization even made it about more than one thing. Most of all, I hated to see it end.
All of this from a fifth-grade kid's 600 word story.
We all could learn a thing or two.
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Kudos to Betsy for volunteering to be a judge!
And Congrats to the author of The Oak Cupboard and the rest of the 5th grade writers! Woo hoo!
It's so cool to see a healthy crop of young writers!
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