B.

Our competition for young writers attracted a number of entries this year, and the judges had many excellent pieces to choose from when deciding on a winner for each category. It was really tough to choose favourites from such an exceptional bunch of writing, but here are the judges' top six choices for Highly Commended prizes for you to enjoy. Congratulations to them, and to all the writers who entered this year.

During lockdown, young writers between the ages of 8 and 18 have been busy completing their entries for Blue Globe: Stories from Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Any work in our online collection could be used as inspiration; the works entrants chose this year can be viewed here.

A number of staff volunteered to be on our judging panel: Sarah Pepperle, Anita Paris and Tara Elder took the 8-10 year olds; Lana Coles, Gwynneth Porter and Nick Priddy the 11-14s; and Sarah Pepperle and Gwynneth Porter the 15-18s. The judges really enjoyed reading each piece and were amazed and delighted at the imagination shown and the quality of the entries.

Below are our winning entries alongside the artwork they used for inspiration - enjoy!