Student writers honored at One Book Two Book Festival

IOWA CITY — The Iowa City UNESCO City of Literature organization’s annual One Book Two Book Children’s Literature Festival will recognize the creative excellence of more than 30 area students as part of this year’s festival.

The festival begins on Saturday, Feb. 25, and includes programming from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Chauncey adjacent to FilmScene in downtown Iowa City, 404 E College St. Events include story times, a book fair, costume characters and more. Visit onebooktwobook.org for a full schedule of activities.

Student writers will be honored on Sunday, Feb. 26, as part of the annual “Write Out Loud!” event from 1-2:30 p.m. in the auditorium in the University of Iowa’s Macbride Hall, Macbride Hall, 17 N Clinton St, Iowa City. The event is free and open to the public.

Students in Corridor school districts were encouraged to submit one page of original writing. Those submissions were evaluated by a team at ACT in Iowa City. In each grade, first through eighth, winners were selected in two categories. They are:

The Write Stuff, which is judged based on language, clarity, structure, and emotional impact,
And From the Heart, judged based on creativity, passion, and expressiveness.

These winning students for The Write Stuff are:

Ayla Keck, Horn Elementary
Lena Hadlandsmyth, Horn Elementary
Jasper Hwang, Willowwind School
Sophia Nguyen, Borlaug Elementary
Oceana Zhang, Wickham Elementary
Grayson Hubbard, Willowwind School
Willa Ohlmann, Northwest Junior High
Amanda Bennion, Southeast Junior High

These winning students for From the Heart are:

Charlie Ebinger, Borlaug Elementary
Vance VanDaele, Willowwind School
Cohen Michel, Willowwind School
Max Butler-Mills, Willowwind School
Emma Yockey, Willowwind School
Zariah Jahangir, Willowwind School
Ethan Ding, Northwest Junior High
Olivia Schlitz, West Branch Middle School

In addition, the ACT team identified students in each grade whose writing was deemed worthy of honorable mention. These students also will be recognized as part of the Feb. 26 event:

Cavanaugh Rex, Hoover Elementary
Annamarie Butler, Willowwind School
Edith Sales, Willowwind School
Aaliyah Walton, Borlaug Elementary
Emily Ding, Borlaug Elementary
Rowan Eynon-Lynch, Willowwind School
Lorelei Rex, Hoover Elementary
Jonathan Claassen, Horace Mann Elementary
Camden Milton, Wickham Elementary
Kinley Murphy, Lincoln Elementary
Molly Nolan, Willowwind School
Maggie Nguyen, Regina Junior High
Emma Hong, Northwest Junior High
Kyros Wu, North Central Junior High
Cassandra Swisher, West Branch Middle School
Kaisha Hawking, Northwest Junior High

About One Book Two Book

One Book Two Book is a festival celebrating writing for and by children, Feb. 25-26. It features a Saturday book fair featuring story times, crafts, and other activities; and the Sunday Write Out Loud! Event.

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