Farah Novoa of Kirkland finished third nationally among kindergartners in the PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest with her original story, “The Ladybug Doesn’t Find Her Spots.”
Farah is one of 12 national winners whose stories were selected from over 25,000 contest entries.
Farah’s story and the other final entries were selected by a panel of children’s authors, illustrators and content experts including Ann M. Martin, author of The Baby-sitters Club series; R.L. Stine, author of the Goosebumps series; Marc Brown, creator of Arthur; Tony DiTerlizzi, creator of The Spiderwick Chronicles; and Lisa Henson, CEO of The Jim Henson Company, among others.
The contest, supported locally by KCTS 9 and sponsored by PBS KIDS GO! and WNED-TV Buffalo/Toronto, encourages children in grades K-3 in communities across the country to celebrate the power of creating stories and illustrations by submitting their original work. KCTS 9 was one of 87 public television stations that participated in this year’s contest.
“This has been a fantastic opportunity to celebrate and encourage young writers in Western Washington,” says KCTS 9 Community Outreach Manager Stefanie Malone. “We are thrilled for one of our young authors to be recognized as a national contest winner. I’d like to acknowledge and congratulate Farah — she obviously has a bright future ahead.”
The winning stories can be found on the contest Web site, along with audio recordings of beloved PBS KIDS GO! characters from MARTHA SPEAKS, WORD GIRL, and THE ELECTRIC COMPANY reading the winning entries aloud. The Web site also features interactive writing activities as well as a special message from singer-songwriter and American Idol winner Jordin Sparks about the influence of writing in her life.
The PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest is a part of PBS KIDS Raising Readers, a national initiative that uses the power of public media to build the reading skills of children ages two to eight, with an emphasis on children from low-income families. The effort is funded by a Ready To Learn grant from the U.S. Department of Education, part of a cooperative agreement with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), PBS and The Ready To Learn Partnership.
