Photo Copyright: Maggie May
Lat weekend, my daughter and two grandsons came from the east coast to stay for a couple of nights.
When they arrived here, Dean the youngest, was quite excited because that very morning he had received a letter to say that he had won a competition for writing a mini saga. His entry had been chosen for a book which was being printed along with others from all over the country.
My daughter was offered the book for the cost £15.99.
Although it seemed rather expensive, the fact that Dean's work had been chosen, made it all seem worth it and a cheque was sent while they were here.
It wasn't until Dean returned to school, that he discovered that everyone in his class had had work chosen too. In fact, practically all the class were going to be in the book. The piece of writing was 50 words long and the book was illustrated as being quite thick. How much money is this firm making? They cannot lose really. They use the child's work and they have to hand over copyright and then they make you pay for the book.
The deceitful part of the whole thing is that they get the school to send in the entries and then they send each child a letter to their own home and let that child think that their work is exceptional, when all the time the whole class has been chosen.
I am annoyed with the school too, for falling for this. I hope my daughter will make a fuss.
The cheque had already been cashed when she found all this out and I have no idea if there even is a book and even if there is... it would never have been ordered if she'd known that the whole class have received this fabulous offer too.
Would other people be annoyed about this, or am I being unreasonable?
On top of that disappointment, my oldest grandson, Rick, who is autistic, gave the money to the driver on his school bus today but didn't get a ticket. He was then asked to pay again and as Rick is painfully shy and didn't feel he could challenge the driver, he felt pressurised to pay again and came home in tears.
My daughter is overwhelmed by all this and was close to tears too.
What is the World coming to?
