Calvert City’s Youth V
oice is a monthly writing contest developed for young authors between the age of 5 and 18. The first of October was the entry deadline; the winner is Anna Lynn Parks of Symsonia, Kentucky.
Calvert Area Development Association used a rubric judging system to choose the April winner. “We received 52 submissions and they were all wonderful,” said Blair Travis, Director of Marketing, Communications, and Business Development for Calvert City. Judges received the submissions with just the writings. They did not know how old the author was or where they were located.
Parks is 13 years old and
enjoys reading, writing, and spending time with her chihuahua named Sister. She is from Symsonia, Kentucky, and attends North Marshall Middle School.
The next deadline for the monthly writing contest is November 1. Young writers are encouraged to submit original work in any creative writing style. One winner will be awarded monthly.
Monthly winners will receive $50 and an ad in the Lake News with their published work. The deadline to submit work will be on the 1st of each month. This contest is not limited to Calvert City residents. We encourage writers from across the region to submit their original work.
For more information on Calvert City’s Youth Voice, please call City Hall at 270-395-7138 or by email at info@calvertcityky.gov.
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GRACE IN WONDERLAND
By Anna Lynn Parks
Once Upon a time, there was a young Princess named Grace. Grace had an abundance of ball gowns, tutors, and tiaras but she didn’t fancy any of that. Grace would sneak out of the castle and run down the hill to the grand Ole Oak tree that overlooked one of their small ponds that were home to a family of ducks. She would pack a little knapsack with pieces of bread and pastries to feed the ducks. Then she would sit down and read. Grace loved to read adventure stories about pirates, witches, and sword fighting. She would escape into these amazing worlds for hours and hours!!
One day Grace went to the library trying to find a book. She looked around and a certain book caught her eye. She climbed the long wooden ladder to the top and grabbed the cold, hard green spine of the book. She started to climb down but missed a step, she tumbled down with a thunk and the book fluttered open. Grace couldn’t believe it, on the page was a picture of Pirates fighting on the ship deck only, she could see them moving, feel the splash of the cold, salty sea water on her face, and could hear the wind whipping against the sails. She jumped and slammed the book shut. She stood for a moment, grabbed the book, and went back to her tree. She opened up the book and started turning the pages. Each page was like a movie playing, different far away land and fairy tales. Her favorite was the page with the brave knight fighting with the giant purple fire-breathing dragon. She could hear the clank of the metal sword against the dragon’s strong scales and feel the heat of the fire. She continued flipping the pages and studying the pictures. She wondered how she could hear, see, and feel what was happening in the book. She slowly put her hand on one of the pictures and pushed. She gasped! Her hand was gone! She yanked out her hand, put the book on the ground, and without hesitation stepped into the mysterious new world.
Grace was falling down, down, down, Into a dark black hole. Once her eyes adjusted she was able to make out objects that she seemed to be standing still as she wisped past them at the speed of lightning. She slowly started slowing down. As she kept falling down she started being able to notice what she was flying past,” A piano? No that’s not right, it couldn’t be. Could it?” She thought to herself. She passed by lots of weird odds and ends. She saw a couch and a grand empty bookshelf. Finally, she thumped hard against a cold marble floor. She looked around and saw lots of different kinds of doors, She saw lots of funky doors. She also noticed a dusty glass table in the center of the room but gave no thought to it. She tried opening all the doors trying to get out but they wouldn’t budge. She walked up to the glass table and saw a small slice of cake that said “Eat Me” and a glass of some blue liquid that said “Drink Me” She thought about it for a minute and ate a little sliver of the cake. Blueberry. Suddenly she felt all bubbly inside and her head went spinning. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again the room was huge! She had shrunk to the size of a rock! She ran around the room looking for another piece of cake or something that would help her get back to normal when she saw nothing she sat down and started weeping. Then she noticed something she hadn’t seen before, she stood up and walked slowly to the big, slim, red door. There on the bottom a little bigger than she was now, was a black door handle. She grabbed it and slowly pulled it open. The door opened with a loud creek and Grace slowly peered out. She saw a beautiful meadow and ran out into it! It was magnificent! There were bright pink poppies, Mushrooms the size of houses, and talking butterflies. Grace walked around the meadow till she came to a brick road. She started walking on it and passed by the most peculiar of things. She loved it. She passed by a purple caterpillar who was smoking a hookah. He seemed to be in a very distressed mood so she stopped and asked him what was wrong. He replied in a grumpy matter and said, “ The sky is yellow today, who likes a yellow sky, the sky should be blue, for someone who’s feeling blue.” Grace looked at him with a puzzled expression and replied “ But Mr. Calipilor sir, the sky is blue today.” He started to weep and Grace turned around and kept walking. She didn’t get very far when she saw a little white rabbit in a suit with a pocket watch, he went sprinting off and Grace went running after him. When she caught up she looked and saw a long table filled with cakes, tea, fruits, clocks, suitcases, and all kinds of little trinkets and pastries. Setting around the table were the oddest people she had ever seen. There was the white rabbit with his little pocket watch, Two twin boys that looked and talked just alike, and a red-haired man with the most fascinating collection of top hats! Grace sat and joined their tea party and got to know the peculiar people. Sadly Grace had to go home for it was growing late but before she left the red-haired man, Mr. Mad Hater, placed in her hand a baggie of pink jelly beans with the tiny words written on each of them, “Eat Me”. Grace went home but came back to Wonderland often and was always on time for tea time. The group of friends grew fond of each other and had the most spectacular of adventures.