Students were challenged to write a story in 1,000 words or less that started with one of three lines provided by Sarah Pekannen, author of The Opposite of Me (2010) and Skipping a Beat (2011).
First piece of AMAZING news: We got 114 entries! In our first year! As the exclamation points demonstrate, we're excited.
Our Round 1 judges are reading, reading, reading long into the night to narrow down the entries to the top 10. Once the top 10 finalists are selected, we'll start to post them here for your reading pleasure. (We'll also pass them on to our two published author Round 2 judges, who will select a winner.)
In the meantime, some interesting stats about our entries:
- Demographics -- While the majority of our entries came from students in Montgomery County (63%), we also had entries from Anne Arundel County, Arlington County, Carroll County, Fairfax County, Fauquier County, Frederick County, Prince George's County, Prince William County, and Washington, DC
- Schools -- Most of our entrants attend public school, but we had one entry from a teen who is homeschooled and three entries from private schools.
- Grades -- Best we can tell (not everyone provided their grade), juniors made up the largest "class" from our entrants (visions of accolades for college applications dancing in their heads, perhaps?), with seniors coming in second, freshman third, and then sophomores.
- Opening lines -- The most popular opening line, by far, was: "Don't open the box," my father always told me... The second most popular line (by a slim, slim margin) was: When I left my parents' house for good, I took five things with me… And in last place: In my entire life, I've fibbed dozens of times - usually to be polite or to get out of attending some mind-numbing social event - but I've only told one really big lie…
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