Young Portarlington Writer wins RTE Competition
Aidan Sousa, age 10 from Portarlington Co Laois. First in the Junior Section of the Puffin Children’s Short Story Competition. Aidan loves writing his comic strips and stories and there were over 5000 stories submitted in the RTE Guide’s competition. Aidan won a Kindle E reader and a 50 euro book hamper. Aidan and his Mum got to have a tour of the RTE Studios as part of his prize as well.
Finn the Talkative Elf
Once there was a young Elf called Finn. He had a bad habit of talking a lot. He would always just talk and talk. The other Elves used to get annoyed at Finn for talking all the time. Finn was also such a kind and gentle Elf, one day Finn and some of the other Elves went to Elf Park, they had an amazing time, playing on all the rides but when they got back to the workshop, one of the sick little Elves asked Finn if they had fun, he said no as he didn’t want to upset the sick little Elf.
One day Finn had talked and talked, the other Elves really got annoyed and shouted at him to stop talking. Finn then handed the Head Elf a note saying that would no longer speak. The other Elfs laughed. A few days went by and Finn was writing down anything he needed to say. At this stage the funny side had gone and the other Elves were actually starting to miss Finns voice.
Finn went back to Elf Park and was quite sad. He missed talking to all his Elf friends. Then at the park he heard something coming from the roundabout. He saw in the snow was a little reindeer. He must have been there for a while because his little antlers were frozen solid and his fur was white with snow. Finn knew he had to save this reindeer. He carried him over to the playhouse which was a warm spot and there were picnic blankets in the corner. Finn wrapped him in the blankets and then began to talk to the reindeer to keep him awake while his little body warmed up. Finn told the reindeer stories from his past, how he used to cycle his bike up and down the hills beside the workshop, play xbox games with his Elf buddies, art & craft he would do every Friday with the Head Elf and about interesting programs he had watched on Elf TV. He talked for hours and he could feel the warmth coming back into the reindeer’s body. Eventually the reindeer stood up and when Finn opened the door he could see a mammy reindeer wandering around, the baby reindeer ran out and was reunited with his mother.
Finn was about to run back to the workshop to tell all his friends about the good deed but he remembered that they didn’t want to hear his stories, this made Finn so sad again. Finn didn’t realise that the other Elves had been searching for him as they all wanted to apologise. Finn was delighted.
That Christmas Eve when Santa came, he asked the Head Elf to fetch Finn and bring him to his Sleigh. The reindeer that Finn had helped was Rudolph’s nephew and Rudolph had told Santa all about his good deed. Santa had decided that as a reward for being such a good Elf, he would let Finn ride in the Sleigh that Christmas Eve. As they traveled for hours, Santa was delighted with the company and Finn was delighted to talk!
The End