Children explore their secret powers during Book Week

East Gippsland Shire Council has celebrated Children’s Book Week (August 17-23) with an abundance of secret powers and some fantastic dress-ups, all thanks to some very creative local children.

Council’s Library Programs Team Leader Kylie Pinkerton said the annual Book Week competition this year attracted 278 entries from 15 local schools.

“We again had a great response to our activities at the Bairnsdale Library, culminating in the dress-up competition, activity session and presentation of awards for the Draw a Picture / Write a Story competition,” Ms Pinkerton said.

“This year’s theme for the Write a Story / Draw a Picture competition was ‘Reading is our Secret Power … What is Yours?’. The response from local children was fantastic and congratulations to all children, their parents and teachers for exploring their creativity.

“We had 88 entries in the prep/grade one section, 72 in the grade 2/3 and 118 in the grade 4/5/6 category and the judges had a very difficult job in selecting the placegetters.”

Grade Prep/1:

First - Kaycie Prowse-Brown, Omeo Primary School grade one:

Kaycie drew a picture of a fire-breathing unicorn using coloured textas. The judges were impressed with her imaginative interpretation of the topic and excellent drawing skills.

Second - Harper Berry, Mallacoota P-12 College prep:

Harper’s entry was a bright and colourful pastel drawing of a princess who loves ballet and can do the splits. The judges were impressed with her interpretation of the topic and appreciated that ‘doing the splits’ was a realistic secret power.

Third - Ellie Mitchell, Lucknow Primary School prep:

Ellie created a wonderful coloured pencil drawing with a beautifully decorated border. The judges all agreed that picking flowers was a lovely secret power to have.

Grade 2/3:

First - Matisse Turner, Mallacoota P-12 College grade three:

Matisse’s story, titled The Strange Teacher, follows a young girl who makes the startling discovery that her teacher is a witch. Our main character follows her teacher home one day only to be turned to stone by the witch’s spell. Summoning her secret power, she turns herself invisible, thus breaking the spell and allowing her to escape.

Second - Taylor Dennett, Gippsland Grammar grade three:

Taylor submitted a beautiful story titled Friend Power. The story is told from the perspective of Violet, a lonely cow who has no friends. One day a new cow arrives on the farm and all the other cows rush to be her friend. The new cow, however, notices Violet on her own and decides to befriend her.

Third - Wendy Collins, Swifts Creek P-12 School grade two:

Wendy’s story, titled The Hidden Power, is about a girl called Ellina who meets a stranger who claims that she was adopted as a baby and is in fact a fire princess. Ellina returns with him to the Village of Fire where they are attacked by members of the Ice Kingdom. Ellina shoots fire from her hands and helps the Village of Fire defeat the Ice Kingdom.

Grade 4/5/6:

First - Claire Roughley, Bairnsdale Primary School grade six:

Just another day in the life of a hero begins with the main character meandering about the city when they spot a wanted criminal, Doctor DimensionPants. They quickly begin to follow Doctor DimensionPants to an abandoned warehouse where they are forced to use their super strength to apprehend him before the police arrive to arrest him.

Second - Grace McKenna, St Mary’s Primary School grade five:

Reading is the main character Izaac’s secret power. Izaac can extract talents from biographies. After he is arrested and jailed for a crime he did not commit he asks one of the guards for a book to read about Houdini. He only needs to read a few pages before Houdini’s talent is extracted from the book and he successfully escapes.

Third - Hudson Ray-Daminato, Gippsland Grammar grade five:

Hudson submitted an inspirational work of poetry titled Secretive Superheroes. In it he highlights the fact that everyone is good at something, everyone is unique and everyone is a superhero in their own way.

Dress-up competition:

Oliver Copolov (Titanic, first), Savannah Collings (Bambi, second), Hamish Moore (Lego Man, third) and Jillian McKenna (Matilda, fourth).

Some of the fabulous dress-up competition entrants at the Bairnsdale Library on Saturday morning, August 24. TOP: Ellie Mitchell received a third-place certificate for the prep/grade one category and Grace McKenna a second in the grade 4/5/6 category of the Write a Story / Draw a Picture competition as part of the Bairnsdale Library’s Book Week celebrations.