Why write these stories? Miranda's story excerpt (Winner)

I will be posting more of the stories that didn't get into this book over the weeks, but I will post an excerpt of one of the winner's stories this afternoon to showcase just how good these are.

People might well ask why I wanted to do this, why I want animal stories and why the same theme again for the next competition. I'll tell you why.

Creative writing is a way to escape. It lets you explore other worlds through the eyes of others. And so it helps us to be less narrow-minded about the world we live in. We learn be to empathetic. And this means any story. Write as a prisoner on death row, imagine you're an African slave, you're blind ... how different the world is. And please do explore this in your writing.

But I set up Paws because I have always had a passion for animals and as a child my writing was always in the head of animals. And I identified a need for us to change our thinking about how we treat animals, more so perhaps than how we treat other humans. And because of my involvement with The Born Free Foundation I felt more than ever this competition is a great way to explore the emotional lives of animals and to raise awareness, make us ask questions about how we treat animals and what we might do to help stop some of the cruel things we do to animals.

And I am so proud of this little book.

So why do the same theme again ... because it needs to be said.
There are so so so many different animals on the planet, there are millions of stories to tell. Yes the first Wild n Free book has some familiar wild animals like lions, tigers, horses, panthers, foxes, hares, it also has some more unusual ones like Nepalese wild cars, ring-tailed lemurs, voles, zorses ... and for the next book I want to see more ... snakes, bats, birds (we need some birds!), unusual animals so we can teach people about them ... with so much to choose from we'll never run out that's for sure! And I want to learn. And you can learn researching!

So I hope you tell everyone you know about this book and the competition.

So want to read something ... okay, here goes ...

Winner of Years 5 and 6: Miranda Lee

The Panther That Called A Poacher A Friend

The panther picks out a strange smell and investigates.

He’s cautious at first as he knows poachers have been

nearby and is scared of traps. He doesn’t want to be

injured. If he can’t hunt, he can’t feed. He finds a strange

thing in the roots of an old tree. It’s shiny, smooth, harder

than rock and doesn’t move.

It’s not prey.

It’s a jewel, but he doesn’t have the human word for it

yet. He bats it with a paw.

Suddenly he feels his body changing.

His face becomes flatter, his shoulders and spine pull

upright, his back legs lengthen, his front paws develop

opposable thumbs. He shakes and his fur slides off as

if he’s shaking off water. He doesn’t feel pain, but feels

different. He is muscular and graceful in movement. Two

legs and only having faint hairs on his skin feels odd. So

do the things he can feel against his skin, like skin but

not part of his skin. Later he learns he is wearing a tee

shirt and jeans, has coal-black hair and amber eyes. His

skin is the colour of sun-bleached mud. He goes back to

his cave for shelter. He’d eaten on the day he changed so

doesn’t feel hungry. Not yet.

Later he comes across the camp of humans. One takes

pity on him and offers food. Cooked meat still tastes

like meat, but he avoids the green stuff the humans eat

as well. The human talks to him but he doesn’t really

listen as he’s distracted by the smell. This human smells

like the poacher. He thinks this human is the poacher so

asks about hunting. The poacher tells him they hunt to

eat and kill other predators because they kill the animals

they keep for food. He thinks about this. He only kills

to eat...   

You have to buy the book to see how the story ends!

About the author

Miranda Lee started watching Big Cat Diary when she was
nine months old because Mum was bored of looking at a
cat picture book and started flicking through TV channels.
Miranda has adopted big cats, including a lioness through
Born Free. A daughter of two poets, she wants to be an
inventor when she grows up, but might consider being a
writer as well because writers invent stories. Miranda lives in
Leicester with her mum and cat, Honey, and goes to Fernvale
Primary School.

The Poacher that called a Panther a Friend is dedicated to

Dad, who passed away last year.

Miranda's artwork:

Buy it on Amazon as a paper book: LINK

For Kindle ... LINK 2

And remember you can help real animals as the royalties go to The Born Free Foundation

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Debz :)