Dragons Oh My! This is my special announcement on the winners of my 9th Annual “Be a Famous Writer” Contest

Drumroll please, or better yet, how about a little fire burst from a fire breathing Dragon!

Whew, that was hot! But not as hot as the news I have to share!! The theme for the contest this year was the word Dragon. It brought a lot of very creative entries from K-4 schools across the country. 16 states entered the contest and the most entries came from TX and NY. Many of the stories came with illustrations too, which we loved receiving.

The grand prize was chosen by a panel of celebrity judges that included best selling author, Josh Funk. He’s the author of Dear Dragon (one of his many wonderful books), so who better than to judge a story about Dragons right? and Matthew Winner, elementary library media specialist and co-founder of literacy podcast All The Wonders, and of course me - Mrs. P ( some of you even know me as T.V. Actress Kathy Kinney). Some of the things we considered in the winning selections were: Originality, creativity, compelling narrative, humor, sense of adventure and the development of a theme or point of view.

O.K. with another giant fire plume from a Dragon...
The GRAND PRIZE winning story, is.. from Ms. Young’s class at Brywood Elementary School in Irvine California. The story is called: "The Royal Fondue Party". The judges loved the creative problem solving of the characters, and how well the story flowed with it’s well written dialogue.

The winning classroom will be filled with actual books, audio books and digital books thanks to the sponsors of the contest: Mackin Educational Resources will provide a $500 gift certificate and audio book company Tales2GO will provide a classroom license valued at $250. Judge and author Josh Funk is also providing a copy of his book “Dear Dragon”. Award winning author Elissa Brent Weissman is also providing copies of her book “Our Story Begins” to the grand prize winner and will be Skyping with them. 2nd and 3rd place schools will also get a copy of “Our Story Begins”. Wow, that is something to breath fire about isn’t it! Oh, and wait, did I mention this story will also be illustrated by Robin Robinson and will premiere on my YouTube Channel in March? Yes, I will read this wonderful story for all of the world to see.

Boxes of beautifully illustrated books with music CD’s from Cantata Learning are also being provided to Ms. Haber’s 2nd graders at William Floyd Elementary School in Shirley, N.Y. who took 2nd place with their entry, “The Cursed Dragon”, and 4th graders from Mrs. Smith’s class at the Collegiate School in Henrico, VA, who took 3rd place with their story “Fly”.

Powell’s Books provided gift cards that were given out to:
4th place winner “Tail of a Tofu Dragon” from Ms. Hogan’s 4th grade at Silver Oak Elementary, in San Jose, CA
5th place “The Dragon, the Dragonfly and the Statue” Ms. Macinnes 4th grade at Pond Cove Elementary School in Cape Elizabeth, Maine

A host of other schools were also named to my extra special honor roll and given gift cards and special honor certificates because their stories had something extra special, like the story “There be Dragons” from Ms Bish’s class at Hope Chinese School-Gaithersburg in Germantown, MD. I’ll be making this story into a video too. You all know I am a strong advocate for anti-bullying and the inclusiveness theme of this story touched me so, that I thought it should have a place on my playlist.

Also on the honor roll are:

The Dragon Hero - Mrs. Bullers 4th grade at Resurrection Catholic School in Lancaster, PA.
Change of the Dragon - Mrs. Berghoff 4th grade at South Elementary School in Jackson, MO.
The One Dragon - Ms. Plume’s 4th grade at Drummond Elementary in St. Ann, MO
(Untitled - “He woke drenched in sweat…”) - Ms. Parker 4th at Mackintosh Academy in Boulder, CO
The Tale of the Dragon and Chinchillas - Ms. Miller’s 4th at Lancaster Mennonite School in Hummelston, PA
Bob’s Stuck - Ms. Vester’s 3rd grade at Harrison Street School in Geneva, ILL
Joey the Dragon School Bus - Ms. Tiemens 1st grade at Meadow Ridge Elementary in Plymouth, MN

And because I love to encourage creativity in classrooms, 7 other schools are getting a copy of the book “Our Story Begins”, sent directly from Simon and Schuster. These schools all submitted stories that had a little something extra.

Here they are:

(Untitled “Hi! I’m Persephone.”) - Ms. Keller’s class at Brooks Hill Elementary in Fairport, NY
The Dragon Swim Team - Mrs. Davison’s 2nd Grade from Meadow Ridge Elementary in Plymouth, MN
All About Dragons - Ms. Seymour’s 2nd Grade at H.M. Pearson Elementary School in Catlett, VA
The Dragon Returns - Miss Gee’s 2nd Grade at H.M. Pearson Elementary in Catlett, VA
The World of Dragons - Mrs. Apac’s 4th grade at Polaris Charter School in Manchester, NH
(Untitled - “Sea Dragons”) - Mrs. Klein’s kindergarten at Faith Elementary School in Faith, NC
The Kissing Dragon - Mrs. Eggers 1st grade at John F. Townley Elementary in Irving, TX

And lastly I would like to acknowledge the story “Dunker the Drowning Dragon”, submitted by Ms. Stanek’s and Mrs. Malespina in Somerville, NJ. This class of students submitted a beautifully illustrated story. I have sent them a copy of a book by Josh Funk.

So teachers check your email. You’ll find a Buncee for your students with an audio message. Also check your mailboxes in your school office. I was just overwhelmed with the wonderful stories this year all about the Dragon. So I wanted to spread the joy of reading with as many of you as possible.