2018 CONTEST WINNERS

Announcing the 2018 Rate Your Story

Awesome Openers Writing Contest Winners!

Novels

First Place: Dragon Blood by Mary Jolley

Second Place: The Demon Bells by Rebecca Colless

Third Place: Where Spirits Gather by Sherry Howard

Picture Book Nonfiction

First Place: Going For The Gold by Nancy Churnin

Second Place: How To Hatch: A Gosling’s Guide to Breaking Free by Sara Ackerman

Third Place: Rolly’s True Fairytale by Noa Nimrodi

Picture Book Fiction

First Place: The President’s Cow by Sandra Sutter

Second Place: Ahoy, A Match! by Christina Dendy

Third Place: Cock-A-Doodle Toot by Mary Vander Plas

The Rate Your Story writing contest is judged using a multi-tiered system and all judging is completed anonymously. The judges had the following to say about the contest this year:

“I had a hard time narrowing all the submissions down to just three choices…Competition was tough!”

"We had some great stories this year, and it was a really tough decision once we got down to five or so. There were a lot of other good entries too that just needed some more polishing."

“I was impressed by the depth of knowledge of what young readers need in language and story structure as well as in topics.”

“We had an amazing assortment of entries this year! Thanks to all who entered for showing us just how talented the KidLit community truly is!”

“We had so many strong entries to choose from, and I was impressed as well with the creativity and variety of what I saw.”

Winners will receive an email with contest prize details.

Congratulations to all!