Whitlee Wins the PBS Kids Go Writer's Contest

For the third year in a row Whitlee won the PBS Kid's Go Writer's contest, which meant another $100 scholarship and a bag of prizes.  I'm not sure which she likes more the money or the bag of prizes.  She is a very clever girl with her stories and is also an amazing artist and is learning to draw and color so well!

Her story this year was called The Book Without an Ending

She got to read her story at an awards ceremony at the ISU Campus.

This is her story:

Hi, I’m book, and I am a very good book.  I had an amazing adventure and a happily ever after.  Well, at least I did, until…

 Lewis Benjamin, age 4, checked me out from the library.

His mom read my story to Lewis, but then she made a terrible mistake.  She left Lewis alone with me when she went to check the baby.

 At first, Lewis looked at the pictures, but he couldn’t read my words.

He got mad. He had a fit.  And THEN HE TORE OUT MY ENDING!

 Lewis’ mom didn’t notice the pages were missing when she returned me to the library.

 Next, I was checked out by Darla, age 6.

When Darla read my story and got to the missing pages, she was sad.  She wanted to know how the story ended.  She decided to try to fix me.  She saw some pages had fallen out of her big sister’s books, so she glued them into the end of me.  Sadly, those pages were from her sister’s DIARY!  She returned me to the library.

 When I was checked out by Robert, age 8.  He was enjoying my story, but when he got to part where Pirate John was about to open the treasure chest, he read, “Dear Diary, I’m going to marry Joseph.  He is so handsome and nice.”  Robert said, “Ewwwwww! I hate romance.  How did we get from pirates to love?”

 Robert decided to add his own ending.  He got some paper and a pen and wrote, “Pirate John hates love.  He told Joseph to walk the plank. After Joseph walked the plank,  Pirate John was finally able to open the treasure chest.  Inside the chest he saw a remote-control car, an X-Box, some Legos, and Zebra Cakes.  The Pirate was so happy, and he lived happily ever after.

 Robert returned me to the library.  And now I can really say I have it all; adventure, mystery, romance, and a happily ever after that any kid would love.  And thanks to Robert, I am now the most popular book in the whole library.