Don't forget the Christmas Quiz Night on Thursday 3rd December!

Details here- click on the pic to bring it up in a new window to print off

WCBA November newsletter

You can now read this at our new online newletter archive. Enjoy!

The Jack Lasenby Award Winner 2009

'The Big Hairy monster’ by Raphael Kidman

From Armageddon to Zombies, 149 entries took fanciful flights of the imagination in this year’s Jack Lasenby Award for Wellington’s year 7&8 students. The Judges, authors Eirlys Hunter, Maureen Crisp and Fifi Colston are pleased to announce the winner; Raphael Kidman age 12 from Hataitai with his story ‘The Big Hairy Monster.’

‘Funny, with great alliteration and clever use of geography, Raphael’s story was complete and he obviously enjoyed playing with language.' 
Raphael wins $200 for himself and a set of Jack Lasenby books for his school, Scots College.

The judges also had praise for the following entries, feeling that they deserved special mention.

‘Te Rauparaha’ by Clara Sinclair of Mt Cook; sophisticated use of language telling an interesting piece of New Zealand history.

‘Hamburger ‘by Anna Atkinson of Eastbourne; a short but great little story with a novel point of view.

‘Ruaumoko’ by Jore Toa Temarama of Karori; a dramatic story about Miramar’s past.

‘Wellington’s Underground Trams’ by Yianni Bares of Ngaio; a wonderful idea for adventure under the capital city.

‘The Phone Call’ by Tom Withnall of Karori; a convincing situation with an honest emotional response and great use of dialogue.

Well done, you will all receive a certificate in the mail soon!

The judges had the following advice for aspiring writers based on the entries received:

·   - Write a ‘complete’ story; we saw many great beginnings which were followed by a brief summary of action and a hurrried ending. “And then I woke up” is not a good way to finish a story!

·   - Don’t be afraid to self edit. Read the story aloud to yourself and see if it makes sense and follows through.

·   - Use your spell check or ask an adult to read it through for mistakes.

·   - Write an appropriate sized ‘bite’ of a story; for instance if you want to write about a disaster or rescue in 500 words, concentrate on just one part of the saga.

Raphael’s story will be published on this blog in a few days time. Look out for it, and happy reading and writing everyone!

Quiz Night- book it in now!

Yes, it's that time again- our highly popular and hugely fun quiz night,

testing your trivia for Children's Literature. This is an evening for grown-ups with a cash bar, free tasty nibbles and some great spot prizes! 

Come along and join in- if you don't have a team organised, you can make one up with others venturing out for a night of sociable laughs and head scratching.