'Fortunate' the write stuff

Arrowtown School pupil Beatrice Onions (13) says she is "pretty proud and it's an amazing feeling" to have won the intermediate category of the Puffin Short Story Awards.

The year 8 pupil won an Apple iPad and 50 Puffin books for her school library after children's author and illustrator Victoria M.

Azaro judged her 500-word story Fortunate the best.

The competition attracted 1200 entries nationwide.

Fellow pupil Patrick Sanford (13) was one of the eight other finalists in the intermediate category for his short story The Book Gnome. Patrick was overseas with his family this week.

Beatrice and her mother Vicki Onions attended the awards ceremony at the Storylines Auckland Family Day on Sunday.

The young writer said Fortunate was about "a girl who opens a fortune cookie and it reveals a personal note inside, to her surprise".