YOUNG AUTHORS CELEBRATED AT FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

At night, I have interesting dreams that I love sharing with my family. At school, I learned something exciting. I can transform these dreams into stories! We had special guests come to my 5th grade class at Immaculate Heart School—Gail Dent and Ann Banwell, judges for the Tucson Festival of Books Young Authors contest sponsored by Altrusa International of Tucson. They taught us what makes a story stand out and win the Young Authors contest.

“Believe it or not, the most important tip I can give you is making your story entertaining. We must read hundreds of stories, and we love reading something fun and creative,” said Dent. Dent went on to explain that every story needs details with cohesive thoughts, a good hook, plot and characters that are fully developed. Grammar doesn’t have to be perfect, but having another person like your teacher or parent edit your story is recommended.

“Can you use Chat GPT to help you write your story?” asked one of my classmates. “No, we will start to use a tool to detect if stories are written using AI.” Dent went on to explain that the story must be fiction and not sad. “Can the story be about something scary?” asked another classmate.

“No scary stories, essays or opinion pieces. If you are wondering what to write about, use your dreams. Dreams can become good creative stories,” replied Dent. Dent and Banwell’s final writing tip was to have a beginning, middle and end to your story with colorful language and make sure you wind things up and everything ends well. Submitted stories must be 1,000 words or less and no summaries. Students from kindergarten through 12th grade can submit a story. Kindergarteners can tell their parents the story and parents can write it for them. All stories must be accompanied by an entry form found at any public library in Pima County. Stories must be typed or written legibly. Two contests are held every year one in the summer and one in the winter.

Stories are judged based on your grade level. If you have any questions, please email: youngauthors@TucsonFestivalofBooks.org.

Winning entries are published in an anthology, with a copy donated to each school’s library. “I have to get started!” exclaimed Sophia Hadeed, a fifth grader at Immaculate Heart School. “I would love to be published!”

2025 Winners:

• Yunde Chan, 2nd grade, BASIS

• Jaden Li, 3rd grade, BASIS

• Emilio Gomez, 3rd grade, Manzo Elementary

• Ava Timsina, 4th grade, BASIS

• Grace Braun, 4th grade, Canyon View Elementary

• Lily Poke, 4th grade, home school

• Yunming Ray Chan, 5th grade, BASIS Tucson North

• Parker Hasting, 5th grade, home school

• Caleb Johnston, 5th grade, Tanque Verde Elementary

• Etai Jabari Martin, 5th grade, Miles Exploratory Learning Center

• Miriam Howell, 5th grade, Ironwood Elementary