Little Odia girl Olivia’s poem chosen by UK publisher

Bhubaneswar:21/8/20: Little Odia girl Olivia Bhadra (7) of Charles Darwin Primary School, Norwich in UK has not only made her parents and school proud but also others in faraway Baripada, their ancestral home, as her poem “Eggy’s description’’ has become part of an anthology “Friendly Monsters’’.

Published by Young Writers, a copy of the book will also be sent to the British Library, London for reference. The publishers Young Writers have also made a small video on Olivia and how she wrote and become special as thousands of entries also came from across UK for this prestigious publication.

The little girl will start her third year (Y3) this September at Charles Darwin Primary School, Norwich, and has hobbies like drawing, crafting, swimming, and be outdoors besides writing with great passion. She is so passionate to pen down her thoughts that in between her 9 to 4 school hours she wrote her poem “Eggy’s description’’. She has also written six or more stories already to her credit.

At her school authorities encourage students for writing, teachers give themes and ask students to expand them to broaden their horizons of creative canvas and the little Olivia loves the opportunities as she never misses such write-up. At home also, she often sits down to write and continues it for an hour or so at a stretch.

Father Deepak Bhadra (IT professional in an Indian MNC) and mother Naimisha Bhadra (working for local UK company) are originally from Baripada. They are currently on international assignments in UK and live in Norwich. Olivia recently celebrated her 7th birthday this year in March.

Olivia loves doing science bits and very much interested in space and underwater things. A firm believer in recycling and re-usability of things she also creates things out of unused stuff. Her arts include- landscape art (made up of materials like stone, leaves, flower), fruit Art, 3D art, toilet roll photograph, crafting also (from unused things- toilet roll, cereal/biscuit box, thermocol, and wool, etc.)

Apart from the poetry, she is also good at other activities like reading, doing projects of her own, and drawing. Her parents have enrolled her to Norwich Council Library where she can issue 15 storybooks and CDs per month, computer games, and all at a time. She loves to read storybooks every day. She creates birthday cards by herself. She has also created cards on special occasions like Ganesh Puja, Saraswati Puja, Durga Puja and Krishna Janmashtami, etc.

Olivia has won for the best write-up on “Why you think your mom is the best’’ in an inter-school competition write up context in Norwich, Summer Reading Space Chase Challenge organised by Norfolk Council and Junior Scientist Certificate (in her age group category) organized by Norwich City Council along with University of East Anglia.

Interestingly, the forward of the book “Poetry Monsters’’ says “the pupils were able to read our example poems and use the fun-filled free resources to help bring their imaginations to life, and the result in pages oozing with exciting poetic tales. From friendly monsters to mean monsters, from bumps in the night to rip-roaring adventures, these pupils have excelled themselves, and now have the joy of seeing them work in print!’’

The forward also added that “here at Young Writers (publisher of the book), we have nothing more than poetry and creativity. We aim to encourage children to put pen and paper to inspire a love for the written and explore their own unique worlds of creativity.

As a little girl Olivia had already written stories like “Dex’s wrong choice’’, “The fire and the water spirit’’, “Whistle less’’, “The legendary pencil’’, “The rainbow birds’ dream’’ and “Stuck inside bubble’’. However, seeing her interest and passion for the words and writings it would be worthy to note that one day she might create beautiful anthologies of stories and poems and make a name in the publishing circle!