One of the most celebrated and award winning authors, Nihal de Silva is my favourite author. He was not always a writer and he started up as a businessman and took up writing after retiring.

His books such as 'Paduma's World' and 'The Road to Elephant Pass' were award winning creations. His ability to entertain both adults and children with books such as 'Paduma meets the Sunbird' for children and 'The Far Spent Day' for adults, showed his admirable skill and talent.

He is greatly appreciated and highly praised for this by both children and adults. The style in which he relates local stories is unique and not many authors I believe are comparable in this aspect. This great gentleman and passionate storyteller is sadly no more.

His untimely death leaves his many loving fans in shock and in disbelief. However, his memories will live on as his stories will undoubtedly be read and enjoyed by many, generations to come.

His literary works are a nation's pride and priceless indeed. Had Nihal de Silva been with us today, the contributions he would have made towards literature in Sri Lanka would have been unimaginable. However, as an ardent fan of Nihal de Silva I am most privileged to have had the opportunity to have read his book at all.

By Rana Hardy (14 years). Muslim Ladies College, Colombo

My favourite book

9 - 11 years

My favourite book is 'The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me', written by Roald Dahl. This book is about a window cleaning company, owned by three amazing animals; a pelican, a giraffe and a monkey. A boy named Billy is the manager of the company. They don't use a ladder or a bucket for window cleaning.

Giraffe, who can stretch her neck sky-high, is the ladder. Pelican's enormous beak is the bucket which can carry a large amount of water. The monkey is the cleaner.

One day, they went to clean the windows of the Duke of Hamphire's house. There, they caught most dangerous cat-burglar named Cobra, who had stolen Duchess's jewellery worth millions.

The Duke was very happy because the jewellery was saved. So he invited the three animals to live on his estate for the rest of their lives and he helped Billy to open a sweet shop. I wish I could meet these three amazing animals.

By Nirmani Karagampitiya (9 years). Maliyadeva Girls' College, Kurunegala

My favourite subject

8 years and below

My favourite subject is science. It has taught me a lot about the surrounding. I have learned about living things and non-living things and how plants and animals grow.

What I love most about science is the experiments we do. These experiments take many days but all of us enjoy them very much. I have a good, kind science teacher, who explains things very nicely to us. I have a lot of fun studying science. It is very interesting to learn about how animals move and find food and shelter.

Science is fun and that's why it is my favourite subject.

By Zeenat Rameez (7+ years), Ilma International School