Passion for reading pays off for Maia

Maia Sulzberger loves reading, and these school holidays she won't be short of a book or two to read, as she has a $500 voucher to spend at her local Paper Plus store.

The nine-year-old Mimi school pupil put her imagination to use, writing a story about the new Paper Plus character, Blurb, for a national competition.

Her finished story Bullied Blurb was selected as the Taranaki regional winner, netting her not just $500 to spend on herself, but also a $700 Paper Plus voucher for her school to use for library books.

Maia says she enjoys "all types of books," with books about horses being amongst her favourites. Popular author Stacy Gregg who writes the Pony Club Secrets and Pony Club Rivals series was one of the judges of the competition, and has words of praise for Maia's story.

"Blurb handles the issues of schoolyard bullying in this sweet story."

Maia says knowing what she likes to read in books herself helped her to develop her ideas for the story. "I like funny books, and ones with lots of detail in them."

Year five students across New Zealand were invited to enter the Ginormous Imagination Story competition, designed to foster creativity and imagination among primary-aged children.

Lyle Hastings, Paper Plus Group Marketing Manager, says, "this competition is about celebrating imagination in our communities in a fun way. We were very impressed with what the students produced and would like to congratulate all the finalists on their stupendous imaginations".