Lenny the Artistic Squirrel

You’re never too young to start writing. In Britain, the BBC 500 Words competition is currently underway, challenging children aged 5-11 to try and create their own short story.

It’s a great idea. Kids get to choose whatever they’re interested in writing about. They get to explore those ideas (with a bit of help from parents, school, etc) and can get a real sense of the whole process: thinking of a character or a plot, developing it, revising the text and finally submitting it to the competition. And, for the best writers, there’s even a reception at Buckingham Palace.

My 8-year-old daughter, Alicia, took part for the first time this year. It wasn’t the prospect of meeting the Queen that excited her so much as a chance to practice her writing. We’ve already filled plenty of notebooks with tales of family holidays and days out; we’ve tried a few writing workshops and storytelling events. This was the next step, and it went really well. It was especially good to see how Alicia responded to the editing stage. She was so enthusiastic about wanting to revise the text and make it as good as it could be (something dad usually finds a painful process with his work, preferring to publish and be damned). You can find full details of the competition here, and please read on for Alicia’s entry.

Alicia's story

Once upon a time, there was a squirrel called Lenny who loved to draw on the back of leaves. But, because she was very shy, she never showed anyone her detailed drawings.

As time passed, her artwork became better and better. Soon it looked like it was done by human, instead of a squirrel. Usually, squirrels dashed off their sketches very quickly, but Lenny liked to take her time. So her work was as detailed as a human’s.

One day, the annual squirrel art contest arrived. Lenny was the first to sign up. At first, she was excited. She wanted to show her great artistry to the other squirrels. But then, as she walked away from registration tree, she started getting anxious. What if they started to jeer or thought that it was terrible. Imagine if they decided to go home, all because of her!

Lenny got home. She started preparing all the tools she would need. These were leaves, a paintbrush and a palette, and that was basically it!

The contest arrived 20 days later. Some of the other contestants were Bushytail, Nutty and Newt. Lenny got scared. All of these squirrels were older than her. What if their artwork was better?

Bushytail went first and did a detailed drawing of a nut. Nutty painted a leaf, and Newt drew a lake. It would be Lenny’s turn next. She was thinking ‘what can I draw? What can I draw?’ All of her plans had flown out of her head but then, slowly, an idea formed in Lenny’s mind. She would draw the whole forest!

As she sketched rivers and trees, she felt more calm and confident.

It was time for the results. The judges started to talk. Nutty’s leaf got her 8/10. Newt’s lake got him 7/10. Bushytail’s nut got him 9/10. Finally, the judges talked about Lenny’s drawing. One said it was very detailed and another said that they had never seen something that looked so realistic. After the comments, they gave Lenny 10/10. The judges announced the winner ... and Lenny won!

When she came onto the stage to collect the Golden Nut, everyone in the crowd started cheering. Lenny felt very happy. This was the first time she had dared to show her drawings to anyone else and it felt wonderful.

After that, Lenny wasn’t the shyest squirrel anymore. Now she was one of the liveliest. And sometimes, she even taught the smaller squirrels how to draw like her.

Thanks for reading. Please share any comments so I can pass them on to Alicia!