Last year was definitely not our ideal year, but everyone had at least a few silver linings throughout it. One of my silver linings was the Treehouse Book Competition. The competition was held and judged by the famous Andy Griffiths!
In the competition you had to write and illustrate a book only by yourself, then post it to Andy. But what made it even more challenging was that every single child in Australia could compete, and only 100 of them won a prize!

Mermaid in Hot Water

I spent hours writing and illustrating my book, titled Mermaid in Hot Water, to make it my very best.
It was about a girl who found a peculiar shell that later opened a strange portal made out of water, right in her bedroom!
So, she walked right into it and found herself in deep dark sea water but not just that happened, she also had a tail and could breathe underwater. She had turned into a mermaid!

Later, after exploring her surroundings, she met a pod of real mermaids. She wanted to make friends with them but instead they decided to hold her captive in their underwater prison.

After a while of living off revolting food and sleeping on sand in a room made out of rock, she had had enough and soon broke out of prison, escaping the fish-like creatures. She later on made her way through the now shimmering crystal clear waters, finding the portal and returning home to find she had legs again!
So, from that moment on she decided to get rid of the dangerous but beautiful shell and lived a normal life. THE END!

Impressing Andy Griffiths

After I finished that book, I started to get anxious about whether they’d like it or not, but I still posted it anyway. Then a few weeks later while watching a movie we got an email saying I got top 100! I felt overjoyed that I won 100 books for our School and a $100 gift card too!
I also felt proud of myself, and relieved that they loved my book.

Ava Curtis (Year 6 student)