The Daily Telegraph and The Reading Agency are inviting children to complete Michael Morpurgo’s story (see below) in no more than 500 words.
Entrants must be aged 7 to 11 years on August 25, 2012 (the closing date). To enter you must have registered to do the Summer Reading Challenge at your local library – please provide your library name with your entry.
The reading challenge – organised by The Reading Agency (story.lab.org.uk) – is to read six books from your local library this summer.
The stories will be judged by Lorna Bradbury of The Daily Telegraph, Miranda McKearney, chief executive of The Reading Agency, a librarian and a group of children.
The winner will receive signed copies of five of Michael Morpurgo’s bestselling HarperCollins titles, including his latest A Medal for Leroy (out in September). Three runners-up will each receive a signed copy of A Medal for Leroy. All four stories will be published at telegraph.co.uk.
Send entries to: telegraphcompetition@readingagency.org.uk
I Saw the Seal by Michael Morpurgo
I saw the seal lolling like a great grey cucumber on the rocks below the lighthouse and she had a pup with her, silver white. I could hear her mewing. That’s why I went to photograph the two of them. I’d been on holiday for a week and until now had not spotted a single seal. This was too good an opportunity to miss.
Everyone else had gone out fishing, so I was on my own – how I liked it. I knew the rules about the island. DON’T GO ACROSS ON YOUR OWN, EVER. At high tide the sandy bar to the island is cut off, and you can get stranded over there. The tide looked low enough to me, I could make it there and back no trouble. I set off. The evening was coming on, the gulls gathering above me and the clouds were rolling in from the sea
News story taken from www.telegraph.co.uk on 23rd July 2012
