DERRY — Two young Derry authors took top honors in the 14th annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest, taking home awards for their stories on a scuba diver and one not-so-great week.
Jeffrey Velez and Olivia Corlis, both of Derry, took first-place and third-place honors, respectively, in their age groups for original stories they wrote. More than 1,000 entries were submitted to the Reading Rainbow contest this year.
Jeffrey took top honors in his kindergarten division for his story, "The Scuba Diver." Olivia created a story, "My Bad Week," and took a third-place finish for her first-grade division.
Both children joined other winners from around the state and received their awards on June 14 at the New Hampshire Public Television Broadcast Center in Durham. Children's book illustrator and Portsmouth resident Teri Weidner was guest speaker for the event.
For Jeffrey, creating a book about a scuba diver was one of his favorite things to write and draw about. The Derry boy told the Derry News earlier this year he loved the sand and the beach, and wanted to write a story about some of his favorite things.
As a first-place winner, his story goes on to compete at the national level, where works from other public television stations around the country will be judged. New Hampshire has had five national winners since 2000.
Olivia will be a second-grader at South Range Elementary School this fall and loves reading and drawing. She also is a competitive dancer at Melissa Hoffman Dance Center and took a fourth runner-up award in a national dance contest, in which she was one of the youngest participants.
"Her book ('My Bad Week') was written because she was having a little bit of a hard time adjusting to some things in the first grade," her mother, Deana, said. "I kept telling her to be positive and that is where the story began. The moral is to look at the good, not the bad."
Both Jeffrey and Olivia have their stories and illustrations posted online at www.nhptv.org. Names of past winners in the contest are also available on the Web site.
