Announcing the Finalists of the First Taradiddle Youth Writing Contest

Announcing the Finalists for the Taradiddle Youth Writing Contest

Greetings from Guardian Whiskers!

Imagine that you wake up one morning, and discover that overnight, you turned into a cat. This was the writing prompt given to the participants for the recent, and very first, Taradiddle Youth Writing Contest. The young writers submitted amazing stories, depicting tales from the perspective of the Great Cat of Wisdom from making friends with other animals and completing farm chores to tales of spells and magic. (Read the stories here .)

Please join us in congratulating the finalists listed below.

Elementary Age Category

First place: Emelia Prevenas

Second lace: Saanvi Kondoju

Third place: Avery

Honorable Mentions: Kerrigan James Walsh and Shriya Kondoju

High School Age Category

First place: Mary Bolinger

Second place: Mira Dahms

Special thanks are due to the Taradiddle judges. (Meet the judges  here .)

Our next Taradiddle Youth Writing Contest will take place in September. Know a young aspiring writer 18 years and younger? Encourage them to sign up on our  website  for the contests! Leading up to each contest, we will email clues for the writing prompts. Because, as you may know, animals are the greatest muses and have the greatest wisdom in some areas (as we especially learned in one of the recently submitted stories!), all Taradiddle stories are animal-themed. 

Reading to the Book Buddies is fun!

Every second Saturday of the month, the canine Book Buddies have been all ears, listening to wonderful stories being shared with them by local youth. Pictured to the left are sisters, Makenna and Olivia, sharing the books they read at a recent Book Buddies reading program. Makenna read Kate DiCamillo's book, Because of Winn Dixie and Olivia read Aaron Blabey's Pig the Pug. Paisley with her handler, Stephanie, are one of Guardian Whiskers' Book Buddies teams.

Studies show that reading to animals develops reading skills, as well as confidence and motivation. Sign a child up for a lifelong love of reading by registering for a Book Buddies Reading Program here .

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Thank you for being a part of our community. We will be in touch next month with more news to share!

- Kat and Michelle

Thank you to our supporters and sponsors.