for your little writer or artist

When I worked for a PBS station, one of the events most dear to my heart was the annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers & Illustrators Contest.  Every year, I produced an interstitial featuring footage of kiddos reading their stories and narrated by a young girl who had inherited her dad’s radio voice.  It was adorable.  I loved gathering with a group of local teachers and librarians and reading all the entries – everything from elaborate tales about dragons to proverbial laments about a younger sibling.  This is a tremendous learning opportunity for children and any parent (or teacher) can enter children in grades K-3rd grade.  You can do this in one of two ways: 1) enter at your local station, or if the deadline has already passed, 2) you can enter independently (entries must be received by March 28th). I encourage every parent of an eligible (and willing) child to participate. 

I am right now very upset and frustrated that I can’t find one of my prized childhood creations: a book I wrote, illustrated, and bound (with dust jacket and all) for a national contest in middle school – Vegetable and the Bow Wow Dog Food Commercial, a light-hearted story of a dog named Vegetable, who (duh) starred in a dog food commercial (Sounds cute right?  So why didn’t I win?!).  I can’t bring you pictures of my treasure; instead, I pulled out a book I recently found at the thrift store and recommend for your personal library: How a Book Is Made, written and illustrated by Aliki (pictured, above).  Not surprisingly, it was a Reading Rainbow feature.

Off to rip apart my house find my book…

Links of Interest: Mister Roger’s Make a Book activity, Make Your Own Book, Teen Ink, Between the Lions (I highly recommend), for the parent of the Struggling Reader