Announcing our Golden Fairytale Competition winners!

This winter we challenged young people of Suffolk to create their own fairytale, and the entries we received were amazing! Huge thank you and well done to every single person that created a story for us, our judges had some very difficult work cut out for them when it came to choosing our winners. Here are the winning stories:

Shoes What Eat People, by Noah (aged 7)

There was once a shoemaker called Mr Robinson, he had a shop in a town far faraway. The shop was called Killer Heels. He made beautiful shoes for children and the children who were very good would come on their birthdays to have Mr Robinson's shoes made for them. But Mr Robinson also made shoes for naughty children, these would pinch the toes of the children whenever they did naughty things and if their Mummies and Daddies couldn't stop them being naughty, they would come to Mr Robinson to make shoes for their naughty children. You could not take these shoes off, not even at night. Only when you had been good could you take them off. One day, there was a naughty girl called Violet, she was the daughter of the King of the town. She had done very many naughty things to her pets and the children in her school and her Mummy was very upset with her. So her Mummy took Violet to Mr Robinson and his shop and asked that Violet be given some shoes as a treat-except they were the special shoes for naughty children. Because Violet was a princess and the daughter of the King, Mr Robinson made the shoes from gold, they were all sparkly and beautiful and Violet thought they were lovely. She put them on and they fitted beautifully, she did not know they were shoes made for naughty girls. One day when she was at school, she pushed poor Tim out of the window and he died. She laughed and didn't care. When she went home, she was tired and ate some cake and then went to bed with her golden shoes on. But in the night the shoes woke up and their eyes looked out from each side to see that no-one was around. Then they began to eat Violet, slowly but surely. She did not wake up and the shoes just kept eating and eating her legs then her body and then her arms and then her head til there was nothing left of Violet. In the morning, the shoes looked like brand new and there was no sign of Violet, because the shoes had eaten her. Her Mummy took the shoes back to Mr Robinson and the King sent his soldiers to search the whole of the kingdom for Violet, but she was never seen again. The golden shoes are still in Mr Robinson's shop window, and sometimes at night, the eyes open to see if anyone is still around.

One Golden Lesson,by Jacinda (aged 11)

A long time ago, in a small village in central China, there was a poor lady who was humble and loved nature. Unlike her, the rest of the people who lived in her village were greedy and selfish, only thinking of themselves. Back then, the most priced item that anyone could want was....gold, but how would they find it?

One day, while the poor young lady was harvesting tea leaves, she got distracted and started playing with some animals when suddenly she saw a mysterious golden mist in the sky. This lady had seen all types of beauty from nature but she had never seen anything like this before. Her face lightened up seeing the magic in the sky and she smiled like a child on Christmas day. She stood up trying to get a look but the lady’s warm smile made the mist sit on her finger. It wasn’t mist or magic but it was a magical golden butterfly whose wings shone as bright a star. Jacinda gently stroked the butterfly’s wings and the butterfly didn’t fly away. Thoughtfully, she decided to show the village her amazing discovery but little did she know that they would all regret it.

As soon as Jacinda revealed the butterfly to her neighbours, they all started to shout “I will take care of it!” “It’s so beautiful” “Give it! Give it!”. She was so vulnerable that she didn’t see through their greedy hearts and that all they wanted was money and gold. Jacinda gave the miracle to a man but that was a big mistake. The man locked the butterfly away taking it’s freedom like a robber takes your possessions. The next day the butterfly was in a small black cage. But the butterfly wasn’t golden anymore, all the joy was gone. It was black and filled with sadness and misery and that misery was spread across the village cursing them. 

As soon as Jacinda found out what had happened her heart sank disgusted on how some people could treat a gift like this so horribly. She walked far into the dark village and was in tears seeing how the crops were dying and seeing children crying. She decided that this was enough! She got all of her courage and spoke up “Right this is enough you are all acting so immaturely!” she’d shout. They all stared at her but this time instead of laughing or booing they decided to make a change maybe because of their suffering they had realized that they aren’t the only ones struggling. They all agreed that Jacinda should go and get the butterfly back because she was the one who truly understood the situation. She walked far and finally reached the house standing in front of a towering mansion that was empty and cold. 

She knocked on the tall door and a man opened the door. He was tall and pale holding the cage that held the butterfly. He handed her the cage explaining that he no longer had any interest in the butterfly as it had no value now. She just frowned but she happily opened the cage letting the butterfly flap its wings flying around her joyfully. Its golden colour slowly faded back and so did the village colour. It was as if the butterfly painted the village.

Now, instead of the butterfly cursing it now blesses the village with love, appreciation and kindness, helping everyone to live in peace and to become friends. Jacinda spends most of her days with the butterfly in nature admiring the green leaves and colourful birds. For now, everyone is happy but who knows if it will stay that way......

The Golden Fairytale Competition was supported by Dial Lane Books and Suffolk Libraries.