For the 2007competition, young writers under 12 were asked to send in stories using a three wishes plot. Some tradition-based examples are published on the site in the downloads section. However, we said that stories could be in any style, whether ancient or modern. The main thing was to use the plot in a way that brought it to life for modern readers. We were particularly looking for interesting and unusual ways of handling the three wishes as well as for good storytelling and writing. We had a lot of entries and the standard was high – a fair proportion of the entries came from children in able and gifted writers groups, selected from several schools, many of whom had experienced a full day workshop on creating a 3 wishes tale with Rob Parkinson.

We’re grateful to Macmillan Children’s Publishing and to the poet Brian Moses (who runs the able writers scheme) for their generous support in providing the books that went to the runners up in the competition. Imaginary Journeys provided cash prizes for the 4 main winners as well as CDs and certificates. A full list of winners and commended stories appears at the end of this section. Meanwhile, you can read about the winners, why their stories were chosen and also download and read their stories below.

FIRST PRIZE WINNER: Elspeth Dale for her story 'Who said anything about wishes.'
Elspeth is from Hassocks, West Sussex

I write (or start) loads of stories and I love thinking up poems. Serious, nonsense, rhyming, anything! The reason I love writing is because it lets you escape from boring reality and into the wonderful world of imagination! You can travel to fantasy lands and have amazing adventures, rather than being caged up in reality! You can enable strange and weird things to happen and stop being yourself for a while!

My favourite types of stories are horror when chilling or gory or adventure/fantasy. The authors that I find amazing include Darren Shan, C. S. Lewis, Michael Morpurgo, Anna Dale,Andrew Matthews, Justin Somper and Ruth Thomas.'

Elspeth’s story combines beautifully paced writing, very engaging storytelling and a cleverly conceived plot. Unusually for a writer of her age, she gets the ‘voice’ of the story very clearly: her writing sounds like the work of a professional writer. Good writers often hear their stories and the whole style of them as well as imagining them in other ways; we’d guess that Elspeth does that. Conversation and voiced thoughts are also managed with a lot of style and a thorough knowledge and understanding of how to use (and when to ignore) grammatical conventions. Unlike many other entrants, she doesn’t make a big feature of the magic, leaving readers to guess at how it works and where it comes from. She’s also content to leave the ending open – you’d can only guess what is going to happen next. We weren’t sure whether her final sentence was unnecessary but this story has been left exactly as it was written. This was a very clear winner and a unanimous decision.

Read or download Elspeth’s winning story, ‘Who said anything about wishes’

SECOND PRIZE: Niall Dilucia for his story ‘The vial’
Niall is from Lydden, near Dover

I have a dog, a cat and a fish. The dog is called Macy, the cat Echo and the fish Homer. My stories are read by my parents and they say that they are very good. I thank Rob for choosing me for the second prize and I expect to enter again the next time. I loved writing that story and strongly recommend that anyone who feels compelled to enter in future should do so.

The books that I have read include The Percy Jackson trilogy, Star Wars Allegiance, the Harry Potter books, Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl books and many more. My hobbies include Star Wars, reading ,writing stories and walking my dog.'

Niall’s very atmospheric story was chosen particularly for its vividness. We have slightly edited it to make it read more smoothly – Niall would probably be the first to admit that he has a little bit to learn yet about basics such as punctuation. Perhaps there is also a bit of an overload of rich detail at the beginning and one or two phrases remain a little awkward, but we overlooked those points because reading this story you almost feel yourself to be there with Thomas in the woods. Everything is so well imagined. Niall manages to get away with quite a straightforward, almost traditional style handling of the wishes plot and quite a moralistic ending because he writes with such imaginative strength. It was this quality that gave him the second prize in this year’s competition. Niall, incidentally, was not at an able writer’s workshop with Rob and decided to enter the competition himself with encouragement from his parents.

Read or download Niall’s second prize winning story, ‘The Vial’

At school, my favourite lessons are literacy, art and D.T . I enjoy these subjects because you can make up your own ideas. PE is another favourite - it ‘s fun because you can exercise, enjoy yourself and be outside as well.

I have many hobbies. My favourite hobby is horse riding. I have now been going for eight years. I usually ride a horse called Star Dust- Dusty for short. Some of my other hobbies are swimming, ballet and hip-hop. I have been doing ballet for five years and hip-hop for two. When I started swimming, I was eight months old. Since then I have worked on stamina, have completed all my badges, and have managed to swim a mile! I have also been able to get up to grade four in ballet.'

The strength of Katie’s story is in the plot and the skilful use of the diary format. This allows her to skate over the detail of how the magic watch works and where it came from and to plunge the reader into the breathless and exciting time travel adventure in the Victorian era. The use of historical events around Jack the Ripper is sophisticated and clever, as well as being vividly written. Perhaps he story has some slightly awkward language and forced comparisons, whilst it’s difficult for any young writer to get the language of another era right – would the Victorians understand if you said ‘there you go’ for example? However the verve and flair with which the story is told will carry most readers past this. We also liked Katie’s readiness to push the competition rules to the limits – we said there had to be 3 wishes in the story, but she was the only entrant to realize that there was no insistence on using all three of them. This leaves the story with the intriguing feeling of incompleteness and mystery, as if you had switched into part of an ongoing story, the rest of which you might imagine - a good trick. Good writing often bends and flouts rules effectively.

Read or download Katie’s third prize winning story, ‘Three wishes’

Sadiya was, so far as we know, our youngest entrant for this year’s competition – most entries were received from children in Years 5 and 6 with a few Year 7 under 12s. Her exciting and beautifully written fantasy story shows remarkable imaginative ability and practical writing skill in an 8 year old writer, but it came through to the final shortlist alongside older writers’ work regardless of her age. Like Niall, Sadiya had also not experienced a workshop on 3 Wishes story writing with Rob. Her story, we have to admit, does break an important competition rule: it is around 500 words more than the longest length we specified, though this year there was some confusion around the story length so we let that pass. Anyway, for all these reasons but particularly because her story is a very good one, we decided to create a special award for Sadiya. Readers may find it hard to spot the three wishes in her extraordinary tale but they are hidden away in there – again like all good writers, she appreciates how to make a plot work for her, so that she can write what interests her and will interest the reader.

Read or download Sadiya’s special prize winning story, ‘My crazy life’

RUNNERS-UP IN THE 2007 IMAGINARY JOURNEYS COMPETITION

Immediate runners-up from final shortlist (received a CD, book and certificate)

Eliane Belben – Crofton Junior School, Orpington, Kent
Loulou Elliott – Pevensey, East Sussex
Antoinette Merryfield – Gosport, Hampshire
Ryan Mason – Polegate, East Sussex
Fiona Fraser – St Paul’s Primary School, Rusthall, Tunbridge Wells

Second runner-up group from penultimate shortlist (received books and a certificate)

Becky Kearns - Polegate Primary School, Polegate, East Sussex
Jack Hatton – St Mary’s CE School, East Grinstead, West Sussex
Stephanie Becker – St Mary’s Primary School, East Grinstead, West Sussex
Emily Rose Faulkner, Polegate, East Sussex
Samuel Watkins, Madginford Park Junior School, Maidstone, Kent
Joanna Morgan, Crofton Junior School, Orpington, Kent
Andrew Tickell – St Peters Primary School, Stakes Hill Road, Waterlooville, Hants
Catriona Rainey, Madginford Park Junior School, Maidstone, Kent

(Books kindly provided by Macmillian Children’s Publishing and poet Brian Moses. Many thanks.)

In addition to these, 20 more stories were awarded certificates of commendation. Owing to an administrative error, we are not able to publish a list of these writers as yet.

We would like to thank the many teachers who encouraged children to enter this competition and have helped to make it such a success. Special mention should be made of Polegate Primary in East Sussex, a school that entered very many interesting and creative stories of a high standard.