Brothers Win WQED Writing Awards

Two young brothers from Collier Township each won awards in WQED’s Young Authors writing contest that received more than 650 submissions from kids in kindergarten through third grade.

Sam and Owen Kagle each submitted stories with colorful drawings that taught lessons to their readers.

Sam wrote a story titled “The Little Bird with Big Dreams” and won second place in the third grade category. Owen submitted a story called “Not So Strange After All” and finished third in the first grade category.

The brothers, both students in Chartiers Valley, proudly flashed their books and the awards they received from the competition. Both of them breezed through their stories and picked out the pages with their favorite illustrations.

Owen explained his story was about a strange new animal that was shunned by an alligator, reindeer and elephant. But he showed the other animals all the tricks he could do such as balancing doughnuts on his antlers, which made the other animal want to befriend him.

“You may have more in common than you think,” Owen said of the moral.

He won first place last year, and was happy he could place in the competition again.

“I was actually very excited I could do it two years in a row,” he said.

Owen’s success last year made Sam want to participate again in the competition after not placing a few years before. Sam’s story was about a bird that wanted to be the best flier in the world, and talked to other animals about how they learned to fly. Finally, he came upon a man who told him he needed to be patient and wait until his feathers grew.

“I put myself into him,” Sam said. “The animals, their personalities and what they do, I think that all adds up to what these stories are about.”

The brothers competed against 650 other participants from western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and parts of Ohio and Kentucky. The brother learned they won the competition in late May and had a chance to celebrate with the other winners and some PBS KIDS characters at the Carnegie Library.

“I was happy to know they both won,” said their mother, Martha. “I’m very proud of them that they took the time and put so much effort into it.”