A bedtime story about the adventures of a little girl and a star that winked at her has taken 9 year old Sarah Hooper down to London for the Grand Final of Silentnight’s Book at Bedtime competition. From her farm in Irton and her village school in Holmrook to the busy streets of London which she found "so modern and important" was almost as amazing a journey as her heroine, Grace, took around the constellations with her star, and has left her more determined than ever to become an author.
Out of more than a thousand entries from all over the UK, Sarah was one of ten finalists invited to Waterstones in Piccadilly to be judged by children’s author Kaye Umansky and representatives from children's publisher, Bloomsbury, the Daily Express, The Times educational supplement and Silentnight Beds. Her beautifully illustrated story, "Wish upon a Star" was judged third best in the whole country.
She admits that she found it quite hard to write a story of less than 300 words because most of her stories are much longer than that and she had to cut it down from her original version, in which her imagination ran wild among the constellations. The story has a beautiful perspective, imagining the mind of a younger child and drawing on her memories of gazing at the moon and stars when she was really tiny and finding them "magical." She took seriously the task of telling a story that would help a younger child to sleep peacefully, like one of her favourite stories, 'Where the Wild Things Are.'
Her father has been trying to get her into Enid Blyton but she finds her favourite author, Jacqueline Wilson, more true to life.