Young partially sighted author wins national award
ASCHOOLGIRL with sight loss has won a national award for a creative writing competition held to celebrate World Book Day. The competition was hosted by the Royal National Institute of Blind People Scotland (RNIB). Grace Kidd, nine, from Falkirk, wrote a 500-word short story, The Mysterious Box, where she uncovers a mystical portal to another world, using her Braille Note Touch. The story was then printed on a braille embosser.
The young writer was born with vision impairment. Tests showed she had inherited Leber congenital amaurosis, which means the cone at the back of her eye hadn’t fully developed. As a result, Kidd can only see light and dark.
Speaking about her award win Grace said: “It’s like wahooooo, I was so happy so excited. I can’t believe it. It will be a great milestone for me.
“I’m stuck between three passions at the moment, but one of them is writing, and I’d like to become an author. To get inspiration, my teacher had set us a writing project about a mysterious box. She gave us some ideas at the start, such as the box being magical or something mysterious being inside.”
A keen reader, Grace uses other books as inspiration for her own stories. Her love for reading and writing has been nurtured by audiobooks as her dad, David, says the narration and descriptive storytelling have been a real spark to her creative writing.
He said: “We saw something on TV about the accessibility of smartphones and it just blew us away, so we got one for Grace. When we started getting into audiobooks, they really captivated her. They are excellent for children with vision impairment. They have helped Grace to learn to join words together and describe things and develop an excellent vocabulary.
“Grace winning this competition is fantastic recognition for all her hard work. It takes a lot of effort to make what she does look easy, but she does what she does for the love of it.”
The competition was based on RNIB’s motto “See Differently” and aimed to celebrate different ways of seeing, beholding, and sensing an adventure youngsters have been on.
Grace’s story was judged from three shortlisted entries by multi-award-winning children’s author Michael Morpurgo. The prize for winning was a set of signed books from Morpurgo in the format of her choice.
Morpurgo said: “Grace’s story draws you in and keeps you reading. And when it is over, it’s not over and I like that! We can’t wait to see what she writes next!”
Asked if she has a message for other children with sight loss, Grace said: “Don’t give up – you can do things but just in a different way.”