World Literacy Canada has announced the winners of its Write for a Better World contest and two young Torontonians are among the recipients.
Lauren Beauparlant, 12, wrote about a dream she had in which she was enjoying a beautiful, diverse space only to wake up and realize there was trash everywhere, people were fighting and the animals were gone. She got a garbage bag and began cleaning up, encouraging other kids to join her.
"Maybe if we all do this, that beautiful place I saw can become a reality. We can have a beautiful, peaceful, and happy world," she writes. "It starts with each of us and doesn’t have to be a dream."
Abby Loewen, 13, writes about a trip to Peru. "As I look around I am consumed by anything and everything that surrounds me. Astonishing mountains with ancient Incan stairs are testing the limits of the horizon while the hot dry sun of Lima shines down on me. Everything about here seems impossible for Canada, but Peru seems to test the limits," she writes.
?She talks about the people she meets. "They don’t get to choose their life, but they are not angered or even bitter to those with a better life, just simply smile to make them feel special." And of the impact they leave on her, " I wish to never forget these miraculous people, the way that they treat others or the way that they have a past that the world stops and is perplexed by. I wish that they could get their voice out, to be heard."
?The annual contest is a nation-wide bilingual writing contest open to students in grades 5-8. Its goal is to inspire Canadian youth to think about and become active global citizens. This year's them encourage youth to put themselves in someone else's shoes. More than 1,300 short stories were received.
Entries were reviewed and award-winning teenage-lit author Eric Walters, whose published works include The Taming, Hunter, and We All Fall Down, handpicked winners.
Both Toronto authors are published alongside the remaining eight winners from across the country in a collectable World Literacy Canada magazine.
Read their full stories
here.
Original source: World Literacy Canada