KCOM’s Young Writers Competition gets off to fantastic start

The competition attracted more than a hundred entries from youngsters eager to put their story telling skills to the test with many creating magical new chapters for the story.

But the promising young novelist picked to be the first week’s winner is 10-year-old Matthew Jones, a Year 5 pupil from Newland St John Academy, in north Hull.

In Matthew’s story the hero, whose name was revealed as Tom, found himself transported back to the Wild West where he met a cowboy called Buck riding a “coal black” stallion. 

Matthew, who runs the school’s Lego club and wants to be “a doctor, comedian or firefighter” when he grows up, said: “I’m not sure where my idea came from. I don’t really like knights, dinosaurs and things from the past, they are a bit far out for me. But I like cowboys and I’ve been watching Back To The Future a lot recently so I thought I’d try that.

“I really enjoy writing but also editing and changing bits so I could fit it into the 100-word limit.”

As a reward for his sterling efforts Matthew has received a Kindle Fire HD and a £10 Amazon voucher to start a new book collection with.

Everyone who enters the competition will also receive a collector’s item cream K6 phone box key ring, courtesy of KCOM.

KCOM is asking for youngsters to add a new chapter each week to the story, which is called the Magic Phone Box, for the next six weeks. The final tale is being turned into a book and animation which will be debuted at the 2017 Freedom Festival.

The story began with an unnamed child taking shelter from a storm in a village phone box, before strange and mysterious things begin to happen.

And, asked to continue where we left off, the youngsters taking part have let their imaginations run riot.

One entry transported the hero to a magical kingdom where the evil goblin had stolen all the colours while another saw him becoming the champion against the evil Emperor Coconut.

Other superb suggestions included the phone box transporting its passenger in to space to battle “mega evil Moon droids”, venturing beneath the sea as a submarine, exploring a creepy forest with purple trees and even some special guest appearances by Roman gladiators and Doctor Who.

There are still six more exciting weeks, six more twists in the story to come and six more Kindle Fire HDs up for grabs, so youngsters under the age of 14 are urged to get writing now.

Winner Matthew said: “I would encourage anyone to have a go because it was a fun experience and you never know you could win too. I never thought I would but I have.”