Thank you very much to everyone who entered the Drift in Action competition with a story or picture showing Drift busy being a canine-super-agent.Drift has helped me to pick out our two favourites - one story and one picture.
Second Prize goes to Tierney Hodgkinson for her excellent pencil drawing of Drift, carefully keeping an eye on Scott's food outside Dotty's cafe. Drift thought Tierney had made him look very handsome, and we liked the way all the characters are shown in the picture. (It's come out a little faint in the photo so hope you can see it!)
First prize goes to Jorge Araujo for his fantastic story, Drift, My Dog Agent. Jorge's story picks up where The Mystery of the Whistling Caves finishes. It seems that not all of the Saxon treasure has been found, and Emily, Scott, Jack - and, of course, Drift - have to race to search Roshendra Farm before the sceptre is stolen. Jorge's story is really exciting and brilliantly written and captures the essence of Adventure Island. It cleverly highlights Drift's role in solving the crime, and makes him the hero of the story. Jorge's story is all the more impressive as he is Portuguese, and had to translate it into English (he very honestly admits he had some help with the translation, but even so!)
Here are some quotes to give a flavour of Jorge's story. You can read it in full on the Young Writer's Page here.
"Drift followed everything, turned to the window, wanting to tell everything he thought and felt . . . but he was a dog. Not a dog like everyone else, but still a dog that couldn't speak."
"Drift skirted the hill and climbed carefully to the top where he saw the thief raise his hand. He clenched his teeth, and with the anger and the fear for his friend's health in his chest, he leapt and snatched the neck of the man, who moaned and fell in pain."
Congratulations to both Jorge and to Tierney. Your signed book prizes will be on their way to you soon.
Both winners were kind enough to answer a few questions about themselves.
Tierney loves drawing anime - a Japanese style of drawing. She has a dog called Jessie. When's she's not drawing, she loves to read, and her favourite Adventure Island character is Emily Wild.
Jorge is a keen reader. As well as Adventure Island, some of his favourite authors are Ana Maria Magalhães and Isabel Alçada, Julie Campbell, Álvaro Magalhães and Enid Blyton. He first discovered Adventure Island when his godmother gave him a copy of The Mystery of the Whistling Caves (Portuguese edition) some years ago. Jorge has also read The Mystery of the Cursed Ruby in English. He has been learning English at school since he was ten, and it's his favourite subject at school, along with History. (I can vouch that Jorge's English is excellent, from his e-mail messages!) He thinks he might like to be an author himself in the future - of Fantasy, Adventure or even books based in historical persons or facts. Judging from his story, I'd say he has a very good chance of that dream coming true!