The competition was inspired by Goosebumps movies, and pupils were asked to send in a short, scary story. Lock wrote a story called A Picture of Revenge for the competition that was open to children aged between nine and 15 living in South Africa. As the winner, her prize includes 20 books for the school library, a Goosebumps collectors tin, five books for her and movie tickets to the Goosebumps movie for her whole class.
Lock told Midrand Reporter that she enjoyed writing the story, published on the Exclusive Books website. “I loved writing the short story, I also enjoy writing, but I am not yet sure if I would want to make it a career.”
A teacher at the school, Tracey Pera, said the school is grateful for the book donations. She added, “Lock is a great pupil and we are proud of her achievements so far.”
Children’s book manager at Exclusive Books, Colleen Whitfield, said the competition had a great response with entries coming from KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Gauteng schools. She stated, “We read through each story and shortlisted the five top stories, after which a panel re-read these and finally our winner was chosen.”
