“Anything can happen when you … Summon the Magic.”
It’s a magical world of dragons and keepers, where destiny would bring together lives intertwined from a previous life. A world created out of the imagination of a Grade six student, Emily Little, with a passion for writing.
Characters from another world Arborio, with dragons and names like King Zuko, the Magi, Magnus and the wizard, Alaster, all weave together in a suspense-filled story out of Emily Little’s imagination.
Emily Little has been creating and writing from a very early age when she created pop-up books from her imagination and, then at only 12 years of age, Emily Little of Port Elgin became a published author when Ripple Digital Publishing’s ‘Kids Write 4 Kids’ chose her first book as a winner.
Kids Write 4 Kids Writing Challenge is the only contest in the country that offers youth in grades 4 to 8 the opportunity to become published authors before high school, with all book proceeds going towards a charity of their choice.
The not-for-profit, Ripple Foundation, encourages kids to be creative, to read and to write and offers a contest that is open to Canadian residents who are enrolled as full-time students in a public or private institutional school in grades 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 at the time of their entry.
Submissions to the ‘Kids Write 4 Kids Writing Challenge’ have to be made by either the parent or guardian of the minor author of the submission, or by the author’s teacher with the permission of the author’s parent or guardian.
Each submission is judged on the following criteria to determine its score (the Judges’ Score):
- 40% Creativity and originality of plot and/or themes,
- 40% Story structure, characters and setting
- 20% Style and tone – the quality of writing
Ripple, upon choosing a winner, then creates a book for sale with proceeds going to the winner’s charity of choice.
For Emily Little, the choice was easy. She wanted the proceeds to go to her school, Northport Elementary in Port Elgin. To date, she has donated some $500 and books are still available at the school and through Amazon.ca
Proceeds from books at the school go toward school projects and proceeds from the Amazon sales go toward printings by future young authors.
In 2018, as a young winning author, Emily was also invited to take part in the ‘The Word on the Street Festival’ held in Toronto where she sat on a panel of youth authors. Since 1990, the Festival has hosted exceptional writers from across Canada, including budding young authors like Emily.
When asked what the benefits were to winning the contest, Emily explains that it has made her more self-confident as she is often asked to speak publicly, often to younger students.
“Having read ‘Summon the Magic’, I can only say that I can hardly wait for the sequel … particularly to see what happens to a certain character (no spoiler alert!).”
“I have many more ideas in my head for more stories,” says Emily, “especially to continue ‘Summon the Magic’ series.
For a complete list of Ripple winning authors and their books visit:
http://www.ripplefoundation.ca/kids-write-4-kids/published-winning-books/
