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Short Story Competition
efore launching the annual FOBISIA Short Story Competition, we spent time thinking about the theme. We knew it had to be something broad and something that would inspire our young writers across Asia. Malaysia, where The Alice Smith School is located, had recently banned the use of plastic straws in order to protect its marine wildlife. This was definitely a talking point among our students and gave us the idea for a theme. Eventually, we decided on 'Protect' theme for our students to be creative with. In October 2019, we launched the competition and writers across Asia started to work on their entries. Much like previous years, we organised the competition into three age group categories: Years 3 and 4, Years 5 and 6 and Secondary. We also managed to recruit renowned author and illustrator, Curtis Jobling to work with us to judge the final entries. Curtis has worked with The Alice Smith Secondary School for a number of years and so seemed like an obvious choice.
global pandemic caused school closures across Asia with The Alice Smith School being no different. Consequently, our timeline of results had to be extended much to the understanding and support of the FOBISIA community. The response from each category was overwhelming!
“ With over
twenty entries per age category our imaginations were taken on a roller-coaster of emotions �
were creative, unique and wellwritten. Shortlisting five entries per age group was no mean feat. Curtis Jobling was amazed at the shortlisted entries we sent through to him. He was able to narrow down the finalists to an age-phase winner and two runners up for each category. Years 3 & 4 WINNER: 'One Spark' by Amelia at The Alice Smith School, Kuala Lumpur A clear winner with its strong message - not that every story needs one, of course, but this appears to come from the heart. A great friendship struck up between Luna and Smoky, and a real sense of jeopardy as our heroine sets out to save our desperate koala.
With over twenty entries per age category our imaginations were taken on a roller-coaster of emotions. From knights and RUNNER UP: ' Wisdom from As the well-known phrase goes, dragons, to the environment, to the Future' by Garam at Bangkok Patana School 'best-laid-plans', the COVID-19 an alien take over; the entries 16
