Celebrating Short Stories
The Book Week Short Story Competition Winners
We were excited to announce the winners of our Book Week: Reading is Magic competition in late Term 3!
Winners
Prep to Year 1
Ella Boyd
"Ella and Lily"
Years 2 to 4
Hugo Heinemann
"Reading is Magic"
Years 5 to 6
Lachlan Hancock
"Drake"
Honourable Mentions
Prep to Year 1
Elina Singh
Years 2 to 4
Asher Amarasekara
Alfred Chen
Years 5 to 6
Alegria Heinemann
Nora Packer
Book Week 2024 was a tremendous success, celebrating creativity, the joy of literature and inspiring a love for reading among our students. Enjoy these magical tales which highlight our students' creativity and storytelling talent!
Prep to Year 1 Winner: "Ella and Lilly"
Ella Boyd (Prep)
Years 2 to 4 to Winner: "Reading is Magic"
Hugo Heinemann (Year 4)
“Pompeii!” they echoed and raised their wine cups.
FINISH.
Thump.
The tall, intelligent boy laid his book down by his bedside table and shook his blond curls in amazement. That was the best book he had ever read. Glancing discreetly at the clock on his bedside table, he saw that the time was 10:30pm - well past his usual bedtime. Tuesday’s pleasant, bright sun was long gone, and he had been waiting for this moment - to finish his book. The book - The Thieves of Ostia, by Caroline Lawrence - was set in Ancient Rome and was action-packed, exciting and never short of humour. His mum must have glanced at the small kitchen clock too, for she suddenly yelled out in a high-pitched voice:
“Emmet! Time for bed, dear!”
Sighing, Emmet flicked off the light switch in his room. He went to sleep thinking:
“Oh, if only I could travel back in time and spend a day in Ancient Rome.”
That night, Emmet had pleasant dreams. Dreaming that he was Jonathan, one of the characters from his book, he was very resistant to wake up when his mum gently shook him the next morning. His puppy, Sonny, jumped up on his bed and started trying to lick him awake, but Emmet squeezed his eyelids shut and attempted to return to his dream. Finally, he grumbled and sat up in an awkward position. His eyes widened.
“Just part of my dream,” he muttered to himself.
Pinching himself, he shook his head and got up. He walked into the toilet, like he always did first thing in the morning. But what he saw in there gave him a real shock. Earlier, he had thought his room had marble pillars and small statues of little Roman gods. Now, he saw the toilet was shaped like a circle, and it had no flush nor toilet paper. Instead, a small sponge-stick bobbed around in the tiny tub of vinegar. Looking at it in outrage, he exclaimed:
“Is this what I am supposed to wipe myself with?!”
Confused, Emmet walked back to his room. Maybe this was just a practical joke that his mum and dad were playing on him. Reaching out towards his school uniform, he suddenly withdrew his arm. “Hmmm” he thought. He was sure that he hadn’t put out a faded yellow dress to wear to school! Suddenly, it snapped in his mind. It wasn’t a dress at all, and it definitely wasn’t his school uniform. It was a tunic, and some kind of magic had occurred.
Stepping out the door, Emmet looked around. He thought he looked ridiculous in his tunic, but it would have to do. He couldn’t see the bus anywhere. Then he saw the bus’s replacement approaching. It was a horse-drawn carriage, like they used in Roman times. The driver greeted him in a strange language.
“Bonum mane” he yelled. Emmet frowned. Those word seemed familiar. “Latin,” he realised. That’s what they’re speaking. He climbed onto the carruca for the bumpy ride to school.
When they arrived, the driver held out his hand and asked for a silver denarius, which is a type of ancient Roman coin. To his surprise, Emmet felt in his pocket and withdrew a shiny coin. He gave it to the driver and sprinted into school.
Emmet’s first lesson was HPE. As Mr. Jacobsen the PE teacher handed out swords and shields, ready for gladiator practice, Emmet took a sip from his water bottle. Repelled, he spat it straight back out. That wasn’t water, it was hot spiced wine! He laid his bottle down and accepted a shield. He began to shuffle around the sand circle, as he had read in his book. Suddenly, quick as a cobra, he lashed out with his sword. But his rival blocked it, and the clanging sound of his opponent’s shield left his sword in two.
Maths was torture, too. Emmet had never like maths sums, and now it was even worse as he had to calculate dozens of sums using a wax tablet and stylus, and in Roman Numerals!
“Maybe I don’t really want to spend the day in Ancient Rome after all,” he thought.
Back safely at home that night, he decided to revert to space books. He read a book about an astronaut named Buzz Aldrin who had landed on the moon on the NASA mission Apollo 11. That night, Emmet lay dreaming that he had flown to the moon and landed back safely with dozens of space rocks to show for it. Then he woke.
Bang!
Emmet rubbed his head where he had just bumped it. It was smooth, and almost rubbery. His body felt heavier, too, and...hang on, why was he in a rocket? Looking down at his chest, he saw the words:
EMMET JACKSON – APOLLO 11
Then he knew! He was in a rocket, headed for the moon! How cool! Suddenly, a big, booming voice echoed around him.
“10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! BLAST OFF!”
The rocket zoomed off into the air, faster than Emmet had ever experienced! He remembered the details from his book. They were travelling at 7.8 kilometres per second, also known as orbital velocity.
As the sky above him grew darker and darker, he became increasingly excited. Before too long, Earth was miles and miles behind them, and the moon became closer and closer. Suddenly, a massive pop echoed around the capsule. Armstrong, one of his fellow astronauts, had released the boosters and lowered the landing legs. With a soft thud, they touched down on the moon.
Years 5 to 6 to Winner: "Drake"
Lachlan Hancock (Year 5)
Disclaimer: The following short story contains mature supernatural themes and is intended for an older youth audience. Parental discretion is advised.
A blazing hot wind swept over the city, like lava pouring down on them - except the lava was a dragon! The creature came from a world nothing like our own. A world with no sky and no people. Only monsters, the forgotten land of the hollow Earth. Its claws were spears slicing through any building in its way. His tail was a whip hitting the ground with such force it created craters in the streets, and its wings were a hurricane. Drake had come. As the dragon sliced through the city the people’s only choice was to run. A roar of victory came from the beast’s mouth, it had claimed the city as its home, for now.
After Drake’s attack on his home city, his friends, his life, John could think of nothing more than revenge. He was going end that dragon one way or another.
He wasn’t the only one who set to end it. His only friend that survived Drake’s attack had come with him, however John wasn’t entirely sure that Jakob wanted to go or just wanted people to think more of him. But it didn’t matter. As long as he was here it was fine.
“Can we stop now please?” Jakob said in a panting, tired kind of voice like all he wanted to do was sit down and never get back up. John grunted in response, but he set his bag down and sat down slowly.
“Why didn’t we bring a tent or a pillow with us?” Jakob asked in a disappointed voice.
“Because all the other things are more important”, said John.
“Like what?”
“Like everything! Of course everything was more important than tents, like the throwing stars, the swords, the knives.”
They sat down for what seemed like the fourteenth time. John thought they were having too many rests. Jakob brought out their map, and pointed to a spot on the map and then traced his finger along the path that they had been following and his finger stopped on the foot of a mountain.
“2 days, 2 days until we get to Avalon, 2 more days!” John complained. His finger started moving again along a shorter path over the mountain, no, under the mountain, a cave maybe?
“Come on let’s go”, said John.
“If this will get you to stop complaining I will take it” Jakob said grinning.
It was dark and cold and wet and creepy and most definitely a cave. It was surprisingly very rocky, there had been a few close calls like the time when he nearly fell down a hole because he tripped on a rock. He had screamed, it seemed like an abyss when he saw it. The passageway was very narrow, there were some spaces so narrow he had to take of his backpack and give it to Jakob so he could give it to him through the passage. How would a map have this? John thought with curiosity, have people been down here before us? He felt a small shiver run down his spine at the thought of running into other people down there. No, it looks like nobody has ever been here before.
“How far are we to the end?” He asked.
“Nearly there” Jakob said sounding bored. They went down several more rivers and underground lakes until they reached a giant room. There were strange carvings of things that John couldn’t see properly in the light.
“Where are we?”
A loud sound of thudding steps filled the room, echoing off the walls. In a surge of panic, he ran over to large rock and ducked behind it. Jakob followed him and even in the dark John could see the panicked expression on his face.
There was suddenly a large creature bursting out of the passage, roaring. A creature made of shadow and flame, with huge horns and wings but shaped and held in the way of a human. They each slid out their sword from the case. The creature spun around and darted to the rock where they were hiding. They both tumbled out of the way just before it smashed it to pieces. It created a blade made of pure fire and slashed at Jakob. He hit it back with his own sword, clearly struggling to hold himself against it. In a quick movement he ran up to the beast and injured its arm. It roared in pain, staggering back, and with one swift movement his sword swung, ending it instantly. He looked up at Jakob, who looked as if he had just been attacked instead of the monster.
“What kind of hellscape is this world?”, said Jakob.
“It was one of Drake’s followers”, John said in a calm voice, he remembered them. Swarms of them coming, following Drake as they pillaged their city.
“Well, it would have been useful if you mentioned those, before you were all, ‘hey Jakob lets go conquer a dragon’! Are you serious? We are so dead!”
After walking for a couple of hours they exited the cave, and before them loomed the remains of Avalon, their city. Drake took that city from John and now he was going to get it back. There it is, we are going to get it back, he reminded himself, remembering that Jakob was right there and this wasn’t just on him. He thought we’re back take that everybody, however he would only say that if they got out alive.
They crept through the ruined homes and castles. Images flashed through his mind, images of people screaming and the dragon soaring over them scorching the city in black ash.
Epilogue
As the father saw the smouldering flames coming from the sky and the loud booming sound from the direction of Avalon, the villagers knew that the boys had succeeded in their quest to end Drake.
Avalon was now free. Free from the Drake and its minions. Drake was dead. As the villagers walked through the town, they all knew who to thank.