Horsham youngster wins story competition to champion talents of deaf children
Oliver Pack's story 'The Ginga Ninja' has been turned into a signed video story and made available to view on ITV’s Signpost Productions website
A budding young writer from Horsham has been announced as the winner of the National Deaf Children's Society's Big Story Challenge.
Oliver Pack, 10, came up with the story, The Ginger Ninja and is about a plucky crime-fighting ginger root with ninja skills and his battle with arch enemies the peas.
Oliver's story was unveiled as the winner in the 8-11 age group by the charity on 31 March.
It has now been turned into a signed video story and made available to view on ITV’s Signpost Productions website.
The Ginger Ninja was chosen from a raft of hopefuls by a talented judging panel including deaf actor Danny Murphy, host of CITV’s Dare Master, and Sarah Driver, author of Once We Were Witches and the Huntress trilogy.
The Big Story Challenge was launched by the National Deaf Children’s Society last year and asked deaf young people from across the UK to write and illustrate their own stories, with the chance to have their work transformed into videos by ITV Signpost Productions.
Oliver lives in Horsham with his parents Emma and Timothy and his sister Georgie, 14.
The National Deaf Children’s Society supports the UK’s 50,000 deaf children and their families.
Oliver’s mum Emma said:
“It was a lovely surprise when we found out Ollie’s story had won. He’s very excited about winning and loves how the story has been converted to video. We’re very proud of him.”
Oliver added:
“My friend Arwyn and I came up with the idea for the story when we were at school. I really liked watching the signed version of the story and I hope you do too.”
Amy New, the National Deaf Children’s Society’s Young Enablement Officer and organiser of the Big Story Challenge, said:
“Congratulations to Oliver for writing such an inventive and witty story. The competition was a brilliant opportunity for deaf children to show how creative they can be, and Oliver’s entry stood out to our judging panel, who found The Ginger Ninja funny, adventurous and entertaining.
“We think children of all ages will enjoy the story, and we hope it will inspire lots more deaf children to pick up a pen and start writing.”