My name is Gavin Doie Yap Cruz, I am twelve years old and turning 13 on October 31st, and I am in the eighth grade. I am mostly homeschooled from kinder to 6th grade. I enrolled to International Schooling in 7th grade, a Singapore based distance learning school. Her Purpose is my first book and I wrote it this year when my mom encouraged me to join the PYAA.

I had a splendid time attending the Young Author Scheme because we played many games and activities, such as filling in a word puzzle to create a funny short story out of the words we found and watching a film where we had to summarize the main lesson. My favorite session was when we met one of the winners from last year’s PYAA named Shane Matris. She told us all about her writing process and tips on how to make our stories even better. The teachers were also friendly and kind, especially Ms. Catherine, who gave us the best advice and a chance to express ourselves. Through this four-day session, my love for writing grew more, and I hope that I will get to write more books in the future.