THIRD PLACE: THE LUNCHBOX DRAGON BY KATE WALKER
• Judges’ comments: An imaginative, warmly relatable tale about finding a friend, filled with kindness, hope, and magic
The moon shone onto Emmie’s duvet in a bright patch of silver. She watched it, nervous at first. After the worst day at school ever, she was worried she might jinx it. But it was so lovely and shimmery she couldn’t resist. She sat up and reached towards it, the moonlight pooled in the palm of her hand.
“I’ve caught a moonbeam!” Emmie giggled, wiggling her fingers through the shaft of light. “I’ll make a wish. She looked up at the full moon shining outside her bedroom window. “What shall I wish for?”
The moon was dimpled. It reminded her of bright dragon scales.
“I wish I had a dragon,” she breathed. “That would show Pippa Glass I’m not someone to shush all the time. She’d want to talk to me then!” Emmie’s mind spun with worry as she looked around her small bedroom. “But Mam would be angry if a massive dragon broke all my stuff.” She glanced at her wardrobe with one door missing where she’d accidently snapped the hinge playing monkey dangle.
“It would have to be a teeny one so I could keep it secret. I wish for a tiny pocket dragon, silvery-small!”