And the winners are… On Sunday, December 3 2017, the Upper Merion Township Public Library in King of Prussia held a special Awards Ceremony in Freedom Hall at the Township Building. Over 150 people attended this annual event. Jeanne Kauffman, Head of Children’s Services for Upper Merion Township Library, officiated the ceremony.
At this special event, the library honored all student authors who entered their 43rd annual Write and Illustrate Your Own Book Contest. The library’s contest was open to all children in Kindergarten through 8th grade. Book submissions were received from many different public and private schools in the area. Winners were chosen by a diverse and experienced panel of literary judges from the community. Congratulations to all students who took the time to submit a quality book into the contest this year! We had 321 book entries in the contest which was amazing.
The 2017 Write and Illustrate Your Own Book Contest winning authors for Kindergarten were Kaavya Budhani (1st place) and Kylie Lamosa (2nd place).
The First grade winners were Kaavya Kodiya (1st place), Anthony Belmonte (2nd place), Alexia DeMartino (3rd place) and Avika Kale (Honorable Mention).
Winners for Second grade were Natalie Ford (1st place), Courtney Lamey (2nd place), Misa Yoshimura (3rd place) and Alexander Montgomery (Honorable Mention).
For Third grade, the winners were Matt Adams (1st place), Daniel Chen Stabinski (2nd place), Nick Adams and Sophia Crofoot (3rd place - tie) and Jessica Lydecker (Honorable Mention).
The Fourth grade winners were Juliet Lawn (1st place), Kirsten Naraga (2nd place), Siya Iyer (3rd place) and Silvana Manea (Honorable Mention).
Winners for Fifth grade were Sierra Martello & Anna McCarel (1st place), Jenna Xue (2nd place), Sailor Abraham (3rd place) and Sam Belmonte (Honorable Mention).
For Sixth grade, the winning authors were Megan Chaing (1st place), Rujuta Gandhi (2nd place), Jocelyn Bilker (3rd place) and Jovina Vincent and Sofia Nannetti (Honorable Mention - tie).
The Seventh grade winners were Devanshi Bhargava (1st place), Isabelle, Lee, Sofia Lydecker & Brianna Pinto (2nd place), Alexandra Belmonte (3rd place), and Sasha Croy (Honorable Mention).
The Eighth grade winning authors were Miya Shin (1st place), Rose West and Savannah & Amber Alaire (2nd place - tie), Anna Walmsley (3rd place) and Sareen Minasian (Honorable Mention).
Two very special Overall Awards for the contest were also presented at this ceremony. Anna Walmsley, a 8th grader at Upper Merion Area Middle School, won the prestigious Joane F. McNamara Award - Best Overall Story for her well-written book entitled Fire’s Ash. Rujuta Gandhi, a 6th grader at Upper Merion Area Middle School, won the distinguished Susan Lomax Award - Best Overall Illustrations for her beautiful book entitled Sugar and Spice. Congratulations to these two amazing young women on their outstanding efforts.
At this award ceremony, the 2017 Upper Merion Township Library Summer Art Contest Award winners were also recognized for their artistic skills. The winners for Kindergarten - First Grade were Sam Tracy (1st place), Lola Fuenfstueck (2nd place) and Arjun Ahluwalia (3rd place). Winners for Second - Fourth Grade were Sofia Kletsoun (1st place), Pranav Karthik (2nd place) and Liam Vanderslice (3rd place). Winners for Fifth - Eighth Grade were Megan Chaing (1st place), Jenna Xue (2nd place) and David Rendon (3rd place). Congratulations to all of these students for their creativity.
