The two young winners of this year’s Library Service writing competition were presented with their prizes on Friday 20 December.
The competition was part of Book Week Scotland, which runs every year in public libraries in November, organised by Scottish Book Trust. The theme for 2024 was Hope.
More than 160 entries were received for the competition, which was publicised in all of our public and school libraries and by the East Lothian Courier.
‘Hope for the World’ by 10-year-old Sofia Skvarnyk of Law Primary School, scooped first prize in the 7-11 years category. Sofia wrote this moving piece about her experience of fleeing the Ukraine when war broke out.
‘All for a pinch of hope’ by 12-year-old Ivy Crawford of Dunbar Grammar School, won in the 12-15 years category – a tale of friendship, values and fighting for a good cause.
Rebecca Roberts of Night Owl Books in East Linton sponsored and judged this year’s competition and presented the winners with their £50 book tokens. She said: “Hope for the World, by Sofia, was incredibly moving and hope-filled, and I was really impressed by the expressiveness and rich vocabulary of the writing. I was impressed by the quality of the writing in All for a pinch of hope, by Ivy. It was well-plotted and paced and highly engaging, with an excellent, hope-filled message about our potential to bring about positive change in the world.”
East Lothian Provost, Councillor John McMillan, said: “The standard of entries for this year’s competition was extremely high so thank you and well done to everyone who submitted an entry – and congratulation to Sofia and Ivy for their fantastic stories, which were obviously straight from the heart and beautifully crafted.”
Both of the girls said they were delighted to have won and both love books and reading.