Garden City Middle School students Victoria Bee and Conor Donachie, pictured here with English teacher, Ms. Niki Paloubis, were selected as winners in this year's Young Author's Contest sponsored by the Nassau Reading Council. The students were honored during a June 1st ceremony at Molloy College, Wilbur Arts Center, where they were invited to read their work. The young authors also received a copy of the anthology of the winning entries and a journal for future writing. This year's contest received 900 submissions from over 80 Nassau County schools. Only two or three students were selected as winners from each grade level.

Victoria and Conor, eighth and seventh graders respectively, submitted personal narratives written as part of Ms. Paloubis' creative writing class. "We did a pre-writing activity taking an inventory of the highs and lows of their lives," commented Ms. Paloubis. "They then picked one to write about. We had peer conferences and individual conferences to hone their work."

Included here are their award-winning works: Victoria wrote a personal narrative about the "seasons and how they make you feel." Conor wrote "a memoir piece about writing; a poem about writing."