On the day of the CBI Awards Ceremony I received this email from Ms. Mackey’s wonderful class in St. John’s School in Kilkenny. My own children went to this school and I hold it dear to my heart.
I got the email while I was waiting, with trepidation, for the awards ceremony to begin. What more did I need than these 29 awards!? And then on top of this to get the Special Judges Award, my day was made.
Dear Paula,
CONGRATULATIONS! You are the winner of 29 AWARDS. 
Ms Mackey’s Class would like to award you for the following reasons … 
Title of Award: For Writing the Most Adventurous Stories
Presented by: Nicholas Mullins
Title of Award: For Being an Amazing Author and a Great Person in General
Presented by: Louise Dullard
Title of Award: For Writing Two Fantastic Novels and For Playing Games With Us
Presented by: Tamas Sebok
Title of Award: For Putting Us on the Edge of Our Seats
Presented by: Leah Anderson
Title of Award: For Writing the Best Children’s Books
Presented by: Jamie Doran
Title of Award: For Writing Books That Fill Children’s Hearts with Wonder and Joy
Presented by: Laura Ryan
Title of Award: For Giving Us Stories That Come To Life
Presented by: Mark McBride
Title of Award: For Writing Unusual and Funny Books
Presented by: Courtney O’Dwyer
Title of Award: For Writing My Two Favourite Books Ever
Presented by: Nicole O’Leary
Title of Award: For Writing Such Amazing Novels and Giving Us Such Enjoyment
Presented by: Josh Curran
Title of Award: For Writing My Favourite Books
Presented by: Candice Keating
Title of Award: For Being a Truly Magnificent Writer
Presented by: Ayianna Piggott
Title of Award: For Writing The Best Books in The Entire Galaxy
Presented by: Marata Evelyn Sida
Title of Award: For Being the Best Author in The World
Presented by: Ryan Walsh
Title of Award: For Being The Best Author and for Making us Feel Happy
Presented by: Jordan Wall
Title of Award: For Having a Great Imagination
Presented by: Alex Molloy
Title of Award: For Having the Best Books in the World
Presented by: Anthony Walsh
Title of Award: For Giving Away the Most Chocolates and Sweets 
Presented by: Tom Byrne
Title of Award: For Writing Books that Our Class LOVE
Presented by: Amy Hennessy
Title of Award: For Coming into Our Class and Telling Us Amazing Stories
Presented by: Sinead Hayes
Title of Award: For Telling Us How to Milk a Snake
Presented by: Niamh Hayes
Title of Award: For Making Children Laugh
Presented by: Orla Doheny
Title of Award: For A Great Imagination and for Writing Fascinating Stories
Presented by: Ioana Burghelea
Title of Award: For Being My Favourite Female Author
Presented by: Chelsea Comerford
Title of Award: For Taking the Time to Come and Visit Us
Presented by: Naoise Ryan
Title of Award: For Making us Feel So Excited and Happy When You watched Our Plays Based on The Sleeping Baobab Tree
Presented by: Stephen Power
Title of Award: For Being Someone We Can Look Up To and Admire
Presented by: Jack Brennan
Title of Award: For Giving Us Chocolate
Presented by: Daniel Valadkevich
Title of Award: For the Best Writer in The World
Presented by: David Kulaga
No one else has ever won these awards. That’s how special we think you are. You have made a huge difference to our lives. We have not met many authors. You are the one that stands out to us. We will remember you even when we are as old as Nokokulu. We love that you always listen to us and take our questions seriously. We love the ideas that you have and the way you tell stories to us in your books and when you’re in our classroom. WE LOVE YOU! 
We began this morning by saying a prayer for success. We would be so happy if The Sleeping Baobab Tree won an award. Anyway we have decided that it doesn’t matter what the fancy judges think, you are definitely the best writer in our opinion.
Best of Luck, Paula. We have all our fingers and toes crossed for you. We hope to hear good news soon because we are getting very uncomfortable. You will always be the best to us. 
Ms Mackey’s Class
P.S We hope to see you before school ends so that we can present you with your trophy!!!!!!!
Add a Comment