Encounter with a Scottish Mythical Creature
Well done to everyone who entered the KidLit Scotland ‘Encounter with a Scottish Mythical Creature’ competition! The standard was very high, and we received lots of brilliant stories and beautiful pictures.
Encounter with a Scottish Mythical Creature
Competition (OPEN)
Download the competition info as a pdf here: KILTS Competition PDF
Inverclyde into the Future Competition (CLOSED)
In March 2023, six secondary schools in Inverclyde ran a fantastic creative writing competition for S1-S3 pupils based on what they thought Inverclyde would be like in the future due to climate change. After visiting all six schools to talk to the pupils about the issues around climate change and green energy in Feast of Ashes and War of the Wind, I was very excited read the brilliant entries and judge the competition. Here are the results!
Well done to everyone who took part!
Design your own Daydream
Competition Results Gallery
Congratulations to the winner!
2 runner-up prize winners
12 highly commended entry winners
12 commended entry winners
A round of applause to all of the special entries!
Design your own Daydream Competition (CLOSED)
To celebrate the publication of The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams, I’m running a ‘Design your own Daydream’ competition for any primary school pupils in P4, P5, P6 and P7, or Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6. If you could design any daydream that someone could have, would it be good, bad, magical, funny, or scary? What ingredients would you need to use to make someone have that daydream? And what would happen in the daydream? Enter your daydream into the competition before Friday 28th July 2023 and you could win one of the following prizes:
• The winner will receive an ice-cream butter slime kit and certificate.
• Two runners-up will receive delicatessen-themed bath bombs and certificate.
• Twelve highly commended entrants will receive a butter slime pot, a 3-D cupcake eraser, a rainbow pencil and a certificate.
• Twelve commended entrants will receive a cupcake-themed eraser, a rainbow pencil and a certificate.
Daydream Competition Rules – PDF
Daydream Competition Rules – Word document
Daydream Competition Entry Form – PDF
Daydream Competition – Entry Form – Word document
War of the Wind Competition
Competition Results Gallery
Congratulations to the winner!
2 runner up prize winners
7 commended entry winners
A round of applause to all of the special entries!
War of the Wind Competition (CLOSED)
On a remote Scottish island, fourteen-year-old Max’s life changes forever when he loses his hearing in a boating accident. Struggling to make sense of his new life and finding it hard to adapt in school, he begins to notice other — even stranger — changes taking place when a new wind farm appears off the island’s coast.
With the help of three school friends with additional support needs, Max discovers that a sinister scientist, Doctor Ashwood, is using wind turbines to experiment on the islanders. They must find a way to shut down the government’s secret test before it spins out of control…
To celebrate the September 2022 publication of my latest novel for 11+ readers, of War of the Wind, I’m running an alternative book cover competition with Neem Tree Press. For your chance to win superb scientific prizes as well as a signed copy of War of the Wind, all you need to do is submit your spooky photos or drawings of a wind turbine using the email or postal address in the rules & entry form below. Neem Tree Press will turn these into alternative War of the Wind book covers which will be displayed on their website, social media and here in the winners’ gallery.
The prizes are:
• First place winner: A build your own Turbine Kit and a signed copy of War of the Wind
• 2 x Runners up: Photography Skills Book or How-to-Draw Book and a signed copy of War of the Wind
• 7 x Commended Prizes: A signed copy of War of the Wind
The closing date for sending in entries is Friday 14th October, and the winners will be announced on Monday 24th October.
Here’s a reminder of the original War of the Wind cover to get you started!
Rules and Entry Form – Alternative Book Cover – War of the Wind Competition (PDF)
Rules and Entry Form – Alternative Book Cover – War of the Wind Competition (Word Doc.)
Hag Storm Competition Results
3 strangely magical first prize winners
5 wonderfully creative runner up prize winners
18 highly imaginative & highly commended entry winners
45 very impressive commended entry winners
A huge round of applause for everyone who entered!
Hag Storm Competition (Closed)
My latest novel, Hag Storm, is all about the young Robert Burns’s adventures while trying to save his family from the witches who kidnap his sisters at Halloween. In order to make his family too sick to rescue them, poultice bags are hidden in Rab’s house. Inside he finds all sort of nasty spell ingredients, such as poisonous berries, teeth and bones!
This competition is your chance to design your own magic spell – will it be a good or bad one? A funny or a scary one? What will it do, and what spell ingredients will you need to make it work?
Enter the Hag Storm spell competition, and be in with a chance of winning these magical prizes:
Three First prizes – a magic trick and stunts box set
Five Runners-up prizes of crystal growing kits – make your own magic with chemistry!
Eighteen Highly Commended prizes of ‘magic’ colour change pens
Forty-five Commended prizes of Hag Storm keyrings
Closing date for entries: Friday 4th March 2022
Rules – Spell Competition – Pdf
Rules – Spell Competition – Word Doc
Entry Form – Spell Competition – Pdf
Entry Form – Spell Competition – Word Doc
Sandwich Recipe Competition (Closed)
In The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Jamie loves making his favourite sandwiches – bread, butter, jam, peanut butter and whipped cream. His Sandwich Man Specials are what bring him and Paige together, and Elin eventually realises that Jamie might be a bit different, just like his sandwiches, but when she’s willing to give him a try she actually likes them both:
‘I might be different, and seem a bit weird at first, like jam and cream and peanut butter all mixed up together.
But everyone loves my Sandwich Man Specials when they’re willing to give them a try.
And maybe, if people give me a chance, they’ll find they like me just as much too.’
This competition is for you to make your own special sandwich recipe! If you could use any ingredients – real food or imaginary food, what would your sandwich be made of?
Use the entry form below to tell me what ingredients you’d use and how you’d make it, and send along either a photo of your completed sandwich or a picture of your sandwich using any art materials you like!
The competition is open to all pupils in P4, P5, P6 and P7, or Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6. The writers of the top twenty recipes will have their sandwich recipes printed up in a special sandwich recipe booklet, and they’ll receive a copy of the recipe booklet along with butterfly stickers and a signed certificate.
Twenty-five runners-up will also be picked, who’ll receive a butterfly stationery pack (notebook, stickers and pencil) and a signed certificate.
So what are you waiting for? Get your aprons on and get cooking!
The rules and entry form can be downloaded here:
Word Doc format-
Entry Form – Sandwich Competition – The Boy with the Butterfly Mind
Sandwich Recipe Competition Rules-rtf
PDF format-
Entry Form – Sandwich Competition – The Boy with the Butterfly Mind
Rules – Sandwich Competition – The Boy with the Butterfly Mind
The closing date is Friday October 16th 2020.
Butterfly Art Competition (CLOSED)
The 10 Winners!
10 Butterfly Book Runners up
10 Hand Kite Runners up
5 Colouring Book Runners up
40 Highly Commended Entries
60 Special Entries
All the individual entries are displayed in a HUGE GALLERY HERE
See a gallery of the collages which were foremost in the display of Art at the Book Launch in September, here
Huge thanks to all of the schools and children who sent in entries to the butterfly art competition – I received over 3,000 entries! Schools are currently being notified of the results, and prizes and certificates will be posted next week.
To celebrate the upcoming release my new novel, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, I’m running a butterfly art competition for pupils in P4 to P7, and Year 4 to Year 6.
Make me a picture of your favourite butterfly, using any materials you prefer. Your butterfly can be drawn using pens, pencils, paints, crayons, or made with fabric, sequins, glitters, wool or even a collage – use your imagination!
All of the entries will be displayed at my book launch in September – details to follow soon!
Download the competition rules here:
Rules – Art Competition – The Boy with the Butterfly Mind
The closing date is Friday 12th July 2019.
Lots of great prizes to be won!
ANIMAL POETRY COMPETITION (CLOSED)
Hurriyah, the injured fox that Caylin and Reema find in the back garden of their block of flats, speaks in verse. She calls vehicles ‘monsters’, people ‘two-legged beasts’, houses ‘beast-boxes’ and the shed they are hiding behind the small box’.
If you could write a poem from the point of view of an animal, what animal would it be, and how would it talk? What interesting words would it use, and how would it see the world? Write a poem from the point of view of this animal, and see if other people in your class can guess which animal it is from the way it talks. Then send it to me for judging along with a silhouette drawing of your animal like the ones on the cover of The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle!
The Competition is open to all pupils in Primary 4, Primary 5, Primary 6 and Primary 7, or Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6.
The top twenty entries will each win printed copy of the collected poems in booklet form and a certificate.
Twenty runners up will receive a certificate and fox pencil.
Closing date for entries is Monday 1st April 2019.
THE WINNERS!
See the winning entries here
THE RUNNERS UP
click here for a gallery of the runners up entries
Well done to the hundreds of P4-7/Year 4-6 pupils who took part in the animal poetry competition – it was very hard to judge as the standard of the entries was so high! As well as birds and animals that live in the jungle, forest, sea, savannah and mountains, there were also some mythological creatures described such as a dragon, a phoenix, a unicorn, and even Bigfoot!
Have a look at the entries below and see if you can find a poem about your favourite animal:
Click here for a gallery of the Poetry Competition entries
WHAT WOULD YOU BRING? COMPETITION (CLOSED)
Reema’s favourite item that she brought with her from Syria is the sea-green headscarf her brother bought for her birthday. Caylin also has a special item – the Applejack My Little Pony that reminds her of her grandad who gave it to her.
If you had to go and live in another country and could only bring one item with you, what would it be? Do you have a special item that means a lot to you? Tell me about it – what it is, whether you bought it yourself, if it was passed down to you, or someone else gave it to you. Why is it special?
The Competition is open to all pupils in Primary 4, Primary 5, Primary 6 and Primary 7, or Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6.
The closing date is Friday 7th December 2018.
THE WINNERS
Five Winners will receive a soft toy fox or gazelle
THE RUNNERS UP
Ten Runners Up will receive a model fox or gazelle
HIGHLY COMMENDED ENTRIES
Ten Highly Commended entrants will receive a fox keyring
COMMENDED ENTRIES
Twenty-Five Commended entrants will receive a signed certificate and fox pencil
Click HERE TO SEE A GALLERY displaying all of the brilliant entries. Well done to everyone who took part!
TOP TRUMPS COMPETITION (CLOSED)
Just some of the many entries!
First place winner Melissa
The finished Top Trump cards!
Well done to the hundreds of P4-P7 pupils who entered the Top Trumps Competition. Have a look at all of their great work below. It was very hard choosing the best stories as there were so many imaginative entries!
The winning ten entries and twenty-seven runners up who wrote the best stories had their character pictures used to design a pack of official ‘The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle’ Top Trumps cards. Each of the ten winners received a pack of these cards and a certificate, while the runners up received their own card and a certificate.
Well done to everyone who entered the competition for your hard work!
THE WINNERS!
THE RUNNERS UP!
Click HERE TO SEE A GALLERY showing some of your great entries, well done to everyone for taking part!
To celebrate the launch of the Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, I’m running a Top Trumps card competition for pupils in P5, P6 and P7.
Caylin Todd’ s name means ‘Fox Girl’, while Reema’s means ‘White Gazelle’ in Arabic. These are what their Top Trumps cards would look like:
When it comes to running, Caylin is slightly faster, which is why she has the top speed of 100, but Reema can keep running for longer, so she has the top score for stamina.
I would be The Scorpion, due to my long plait which some people have said looks a bit like a scorpion’s tail! This is what my Top Trumps card would look like:
I’m hopeless at running, but as an author I’d like to think I’ve got a good imagination, so I’ve given myself the top score for this!
If you’d like to enter the competition to design your own Top Trumps card and win the chance to see it printed up for our official #FoxandGazelle Top Trumps card pack, download the rules and entry form below and enter today!
The competition is open to all Primary 5, Primary 6 and Primary 7 pupils in UK schools, and the closing date for entries is Tuesday 10th July 2018.
Encounter with a Scottish Mythical Creature
P1-P3 Results
P4-P7 Winners
P4-P7 Runners up
A Gallery of Great Entries
Well done to everyone who entered the KidLit Scotland ‘Encounter with a Scottish Mythical Creature’ competition! The standard was very high, and we received lots of brilliant stories and beautiful pictures.
Encounter with a Scottish Mythical Creature
Competition (OPEN)
Download the competition info as a pdf here: KILTS Competition PDF
Inverclyde into the Future Competition (CLOSED)
In March 2023, six secondary schools in Inverclyde ran a fantastic creative writing competition for S1-S3 pupils based on what they thought Inverclyde would be like in the future due to climate change. After visiting all six schools to talk to the pupils about the issues around climate change and green energy in Feast of Ashes and War of the Wind, I was very excited read the brilliant entries and judge the competition. Here are the results!
First Place
Second Place Entry
Third Place Entry
Highly Commended Entries
Commended Entries
A Gallery of Great Entries!
Well done to everyone who took part!
Design your own Daydream
Competition Results Gallery
Winner
Congratulations to the winner!
Runners Up
2 runner-up prize winners
Highly Commended
12 highly commended entry winners
Commended
12 commended entry winners
Special Entries
A round of applause to all of the special entries!
Design your own Daydream Competition (CLOSED)
To celebrate the publication of The Pawnshop of Stolen Dreams, I’m running a ‘Design your own Daydream’ competition for any primary school pupils in P4, P5, P6 and P7, or Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6. If you could design any daydream that someone could have, would it be good, bad, magical, funny, or scary? What ingredients would you need to use to make someone have that daydream? And what would happen in the daydream? Enter your daydream into the competition before Friday 28th July 2023 and you could win one of the following prizes:
• The winner will receive an ice-cream butter slime kit and certificate.
• Two runners-up will receive delicatessen-themed bath bombs and certificate.
• Twelve highly commended entrants will receive a butter slime pot, a 3-D cupcake eraser, a rainbow pencil and a certificate.
• Twelve commended entrants will receive a cupcake-themed eraser, a rainbow pencil and a certificate.
Daydream Competition Rules – PDF
Daydream Competition Rules – Word document
Daydream Competition Entry Form – PDF
Daydream Competition – Entry Form – Word document
War of the Wind Competition
Competition Results Gallery
Winner
Congratulations to the winner!
Runners Up
2 runner up prize winners
Commended
7 commended entry winners
Special Entries
A round of applause to all of the special entries!
War of the Wind Competition (CLOSED)
On a remote Scottish island, fourteen-year-old Max’s life changes forever when he loses his hearing in a boating accident. Struggling to make sense of his new life and finding it hard to adapt in school, he begins to notice other — even stranger — changes taking place when a new wind farm appears off the island’s coast.
With the help of three school friends with additional support needs, Max discovers that a sinister scientist, Doctor Ashwood, is using wind turbines to experiment on the islanders. They must find a way to shut down the government’s secret test before it spins out of control…
To celebrate the September 2022 publication of my latest novel for 11+ readers, of War of the Wind, I’m running an alternative book cover competition with Neem Tree Press. For your chance to win superb scientific prizes as well as a signed copy of War of the Wind, all you need to do is submit your spooky photos or drawings of a wind turbine using the email or postal address in the rules & entry form below. Neem Tree Press will turn these into alternative War of the Wind book covers which will be displayed on their website, social media and here in the winners’ gallery.
The prizes are:
• First place winner: A build your own Turbine Kit and a signed copy of War of the Wind
• 2 x Runners up: Photography Skills Book or How-to-Draw Book and a signed copy of War of the Wind
• 7 x Commended Prizes: A signed copy of War of the Wind
The closing date for sending in entries is Friday 14th October, and the winners will be announced on Monday 24th October.
Here’s a reminder of the original War of the Wind cover to get you started!
Rules and Entry Form – Alternative Book Cover – War of the Wind Competition (PDF)
Rules and Entry Form – Alternative Book Cover – War of the Wind Competition (Word Doc.)
Hag Storm Competition Results
Winners
3 strangely magical first prize winners
Runners Up
5 wonderfully creative runner up prize winners
Highly Commended
18 highly imaginative & highly commended entry winners
Commended
45 very impressive commended entry winners
Entries
A huge round of applause for everyone who entered!
Hag Storm Competition (Closed)
My latest novel, Hag Storm, is all about the young Robert Burns’s adventures while trying to save his family from the witches who kidnap his sisters at Halloween. In order to make his family too sick to rescue them, poultice bags are hidden in Rab’s house. Inside he finds all sort of nasty spell ingredients, such as poisonous berries, teeth and bones!
This competition is your chance to design your own magic spell – will it be a good or bad one? A funny or a scary one? What will it do, and what spell ingredients will you need to make it work?
Enter the Hag Storm spell competition, and be in with a chance of winning these magical prizes:
Three First prizes – a magic trick and stunts box set
Five Runners-up prizes of crystal growing kits – make your own magic with chemistry!
Eighteen Highly Commended prizes of ‘magic’ colour change pens
Forty-five Commended prizes of Hag Storm keyrings
Closing date for entries: Friday 4th March 2022
Rules – Spell Competition – Pdf
Rules – Spell Competition – Word Doc
Entry Form – Spell Competition – Pdf
Entry Form – Spell Competition – Word Doc
Sandwich Recipe Competition (Closed)
The Winning Entries
The Runner-up Entries
Highly Commended Entries
In The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, Jamie loves making his favourite sandwiches – bread, butter, jam, peanut butter and whipped cream. His Sandwich Man Specials are what bring him and Paige together, and Elin eventually realises that Jamie might be a bit different, just like his sandwiches, but when she’s willing to give him a try she actually likes them both:
‘I might be different, and seem a bit weird at first, like jam and cream and peanut butter all mixed up together.
But everyone loves my Sandwich Man Specials when they’re willing to give them a try.
And maybe, if people give me a chance, they’ll find they like me just as much too.’
This competition is for you to make your own special sandwich recipe! If you could use any ingredients – real food or imaginary food, what would your sandwich be made of?
Use the entry form below to tell me what ingredients you’d use and how you’d make it, and send along either a photo of your completed sandwich or a picture of your sandwich using any art materials you like!
The competition is open to all pupils in P4, P5, P6 and P7, or Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6. The writers of the top twenty recipes will have their sandwich recipes printed up in a special sandwich recipe booklet, and they’ll receive a copy of the recipe booklet along with butterfly stickers and a signed certificate.
Twenty-five runners-up will also be picked, who’ll receive a butterfly stationery pack (notebook, stickers and pencil) and a signed certificate.
So what are you waiting for? Get your aprons on and get cooking!
The rules and entry form can be downloaded here:
Word Doc format-
Entry Form – Sandwich Competition – The Boy with the Butterfly Mind
Sandwich Recipe Competition Rules-rtf
PDF format-
Entry Form – Sandwich Competition – The Boy with the Butterfly Mind
Rules – Sandwich Competition – The Boy with the Butterfly Mind
The closing date is Friday October 16th 2020.
Butterfly Art Competition (CLOSED)
The 10 Winners!
10 Butterfly Book Runners up
10 Hand Kite Runners up
5 Colouring Book Runners up
40 Highly Commended Entries
60 Special Entries
All the individual entries are displayed in a HUGE GALLERY HERE
See a gallery of the collages which were foremost in the display of Art at the Book Launch in September, here
Huge thanks to all of the schools and children who sent in entries to the butterfly art competition – I received over 3,000 entries! Schools are currently being notified of the results, and prizes and certificates will be posted next week.
To celebrate the upcoming release my new novel, The Boy with the Butterfly Mind, I’m running a butterfly art competition for pupils in P4 to P7, and Year 4 to Year 6.
Make me a picture of your favourite butterfly, using any materials you prefer. Your butterfly can be drawn using pens, pencils, paints, crayons, or made with fabric, sequins, glitters, wool or even a collage – use your imagination!
All of the entries will be displayed at my book launch in September – details to follow soon!
Download the competition rules here:
Rules – Art Competition – The Boy with the Butterfly Mind
The closing date is Friday 12th July 2019.
Lots of great prizes to be won!
ANIMAL POETRY COMPETITION (CLOSED)
Hurriyah, the injured fox that Caylin and Reema find in the back garden of their block of flats, speaks in verse. She calls vehicles ‘monsters’, people ‘two-legged beasts’, houses ‘beast-boxes’ and the shed they are hiding behind the small box’.
If you could write a poem from the point of view of an animal, what animal would it be, and how would it talk? What interesting words would it use, and how would it see the world? Write a poem from the point of view of this animal, and see if other people in your class can guess which animal it is from the way it talks. Then send it to me for judging along with a silhouette drawing of your animal like the ones on the cover of The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle!
The Competition is open to all pupils in Primary 4, Primary 5, Primary 6 and Primary 7, or Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6.
The top twenty entries will each win printed copy of the collected poems in booklet form and a certificate.
Twenty runners up will receive a certificate and fox pencil.
Closing date for entries is Monday 1st April 2019.
THE WINNERS!
See the winning entries here
THE RUNNERS UP
click here for a gallery of the runners up entries
Well done to the hundreds of P4-7/Year 4-6 pupils who took part in the animal poetry competition – it was very hard to judge as the standard of the entries was so high! As well as birds and animals that live in the jungle, forest, sea, savannah and mountains, there were also some mythological creatures described such as a dragon, a phoenix, a unicorn, and even Bigfoot!
Have a look at the entries below and see if you can find a poem about your favourite animal:
Click here for a gallery of the Poetry Competition entries
WHAT WOULD YOU BRING? COMPETITION (CLOSED)
Reema’s favourite item that she brought with her from Syria is the sea-green headscarf her brother bought for her birthday. Caylin also has a special item – the Applejack My Little Pony that reminds her of her grandad who gave it to her.
If you had to go and live in another country and could only bring one item with you, what would it be? Do you have a special item that means a lot to you? Tell me about it – what it is, whether you bought it yourself, if it was passed down to you, or someone else gave it to you. Why is it special?
The Competition is open to all pupils in Primary 4, Primary 5, Primary 6 and Primary 7, or Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6.
The closing date is Friday 7th December 2018.
THE WINNERS
Five Winners will receive a soft toy fox or gazelle
THE RUNNERS UP
Ten Runners Up will receive a model fox or gazelle
HIGHLY COMMENDED ENTRIES
Ten Highly Commended entrants will receive a fox keyring
COMMENDED ENTRIES
Twenty-Five Commended entrants will receive a signed certificate and fox pencil
Click HERE TO SEE A GALLERY displaying all of the brilliant entries. Well done to everyone who took part!
TOP TRUMPS COMPETITION (CLOSED)
Just some of the many entries!
First place winner Melissa
The finished Top Trump cards!
Well done to the hundreds of P4-P7 pupils who entered the Top Trumps Competition. Have a look at all of their great work below. It was very hard choosing the best stories as there were so many imaginative entries!
The winning ten entries and twenty-seven runners up who wrote the best stories had their character pictures used to design a pack of official ‘The Fox Girl and the White Gazelle’ Top Trumps cards. Each of the ten winners received a pack of these cards and a certificate, while the runners up received their own card and a certificate.
Well done to everyone who entered the competition for your hard work!
THE WINNERS!
THE RUNNERS UP!
Click HERE TO SEE A GALLERY showing some of your great entries, well done to everyone for taking part!
To celebrate the launch of the Fox Girl and the White Gazelle, I’m running a Top Trumps card competition for pupils in P5, P6 and P7.
Caylin Todd’ s name means ‘Fox Girl’, while Reema’s means ‘White Gazelle’ in Arabic. These are what their Top Trumps cards would look like:
When it comes to running, Caylin is slightly faster, which is why she has the top speed of 100, but Reema can keep running for longer, so she has the top score for stamina.
I would be The Scorpion, due to my long plait which some people have said looks a bit like a scorpion’s tail! This is what my Top Trumps card would look like:
I’m hopeless at running, but as an author I’d like to think I’ve got a good imagination, so I’ve given myself the top score for this!
If you’d like to enter the competition to design your own Top Trumps card and win the chance to see it printed up for our official #FoxandGazelle Top Trumps card pack, download the rules and entry form below and enter today!
The competition is open to all Primary 5, Primary 6 and Primary 7 pupils in UK schools, and the closing date for entries is Tuesday 10th July 2018.