I first heard of the Ickabog on the news as it was getting launched as a worldwide competition for children in lockdown. I immediately wanted to enter a drawing because it was my dream to be in a J.K Rowling book. So I started to read the chapters that were published two at a time everyday for people to read and I ended up finding a chapter that really interested me so I drew the instalment.

The picture I drew was my version of the Ickabog and how I thought it would look but then I decided to draw another picture of the Hopes of Heaven which are Cornucopian pastries (The land of Cornucopia is where the ickabog is set). I got the idea of the pastries from the chapter because they had been dropped into a flowerbed.

I entered both of the pictures but days later I found out the the Hopes of Heaven had been shortlisted (340 pictures were shortlisted -one for each chapter). I had to package up the picture then a courier came to pick it up and it was sent over to London so the publishers could get a better look at it and a lady from London called Becky Logan helped us get ready and went through some thing with us through this whole journey.

I was really nervous because if I didn’t win I would obviously be disappointed but somehow I had a gut feeling that my drawing would be picked -and so did both of my parents. It was about 10 o’clock, I was about to go to bed and my mum said to me that I had received an email so we were all sitting on the bed and mum handed me the phone. The email said “Congratulations Ella you are one of the 34 winners of the illustration competition” I straight away half-yelled “I WON!!” And we all couldn’t believe it. We had to wait a few days before we could tell anyone but the first person we told was my teacher Mrs Begg, then my class, then my Principal (Mr Schultz) and my family and friends my phone that night.

As a prize of winning as well as having my picture in a J.K. Rowling book, I received a copy of the book signed by  J.K. Rowling and about $1000 worth of books for a public library or school. I chose to donate the books to my school as a gift and thank you as I am a senior, plus we are building a new library so they will be happily borrowed.

For the advertisement of the Ickabog the winners could be involved in either a news report, getting their photo taken or talking to J.K. Rowling over a live event interview. I had to answer a series of questions about the Ickabog and one of them was “if you could ask J.K. Rowling one thing about the Ickabog what would it be?”. My answer to the question was “When you first wrote The Ickabog did you have an idea about what it looked like and how does that compare to the one that has been chosen?”.

Days later I was notified that I had been chosen to speak to J.K. Rowling over a live Zoom call! I was so excited because she is the person that inspires me the most and I got to talk to her and be in her-story making book! However, the date of the Zoom call was in the middle of when I was on camp at Kangaroo Island which was a problem and who would want to miss a once in a lifetime opportunity? So my parents figured out a way for them to come to Kangaroo Island for me.

I proceeded to go to camp as planned, it was the middle of camp and we had just had a busy day my parents came to pick me up from the campsite and took me back to their one-night-stay apartment. I was up all night as the interview was at 1:30am to make it convenient for the London time zone. So I was up for about 21 hours straight but it was definitely worth it. Before the interview I was shaking and extremely nervous but why wouldn’t you be when your about to talk to your idol? I was the only kid in Australia who got this opportunity so I was sort of representing my country.

We had a quick run-through to make sure everything was working and then the interview started. I was about 6th in the interview but it was good to listen to the other kids speak. When it was my turn the host, Leah asked me a few questions like “Why were you keen to enter the competition?” and “How did you feel when you found out that you had won?”. Then I got to ask my question to J.K Rowling!! One thing that she mentioned to me was that it was an honour for us to be in the same book together and that she absolutely loved my picture!. I was so happy that I had that opportunity and thankful that my parents came to K.I for me.

On the 10th of November 2020 the book was officially published. We had organised a small interview to go into The Advertiser as a happy statement just as we went into lockdown. I had a phone interview with Chris Russell who was in charge of the newspaper stories. Then I had a backyard photo shoot with my dog Jessie and myself holding up the book. The next week my photo and story was in The Advertiser and so many people came to congratulate me!

This is a moment that I will never forget and I am extremely lucky that this has happened to me because this is extremely rare! I am still so excited and it hasn’t become real for me yet even though I know that it is. I can’t believe that I am in a history making and my idol’s book!