Young Authors Take Home Writing Prize

SHIRLEY, NY — Young second grade authors at William Floyd Elementary School recently brought home the prize, scoring a second place win in the 9th Annual "Be A Famous Writer" contest.

The contest, according to William Floyd School District officials, was sponsored by the literacy website Mrs.P.com.

Students were required to write a 250 to 1,000 word short story focused on the contest theme, “dragon.”

According to the district, the kids worked collaboratively to write The Cursed Dragon, a tale about a prince named Leo who is cursed for being selfish and turned into a dragon — a burden he bears until he learns a valuable life lesson about putting others before himself in a "heartwarming and humorous" short story.

“My students spent time researching dragons, which they thoroughly enjoyed as it provided them the opportunity to delve into different genres of literature including fairy tales, fiction, non-fiction and myths,” said Haber. “They worked collaboratively to create a story that incorporated the unique ideas of each student in the class,” she added.

The contest, Haber added, "helped to instill a love of writing and sparked creativity in all of my students. They are so proud of their story and truly feel accomplished as authors — even though they are only in the second grade. They are ready for the next contest."

Each entry was judged on originality, creativity, compelling narrative, humor, sense of adventure and the development of a theme or point of view, the district said in a release.

Contest judges included Josh Funk, best-selling author of Dear Dragon and It’s Not Jack and the Beanstalk; Matthew Winner, elementary library media specialist and co-founder of the literacy podcast “All The Wonders;” and Mrs. P., played by television actress Kathy Kinney.

“I kept wanting to read and read to find out what would happen next and whether or not Leo would make the right choices," one judge said.

William Floyd Elementary School competed against other schools from 16 states including California, Texas, Virginia, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota and others.

The class received a copy of Our Story Begins by Elissa Brent Weissman, a book about the “fun, inspiring and occasionally ridiculous things” authors and illustrators wrote and drew as kids, as well as several boxes of illustrated books with music CDs from Cantata Learning, the district said.

Photo courtesy William Floyd School District.