Highlands at Geist residents Autumn and Levi Gates both placed in the top three for their grade level of the 14th Annual Reading Rainbow Young Authors and Illustrators Contest. They were honored during opening ceremonies for the “Let’s Meet PBS Kids in the Park” event June 21.

For full disclosure, I am the proud parent of these two creative kids. (I’d like to think they are taking after their mother with their award-winning writing skills!) Their stories beat out hundreds of other entries at each grade level.

Levi’s original story, “Threed’s Earth Adventure,” took second place at the kindergarten level. Threed is an alien who winds up on Earth with his spaceship stuck in a cloud. He looks for help from some animal friends before landing back on Mars. Levi enjoyed using watercolor paints to create his colorful illustrations.

Autumn’s story, “Jamie and the Magic Tree World,” won third place honors in third grade. When Jamie disobeys her father and climbs a tree, she is magically transported to a strange new world. Autumn’s illustrations are collages with mixed media, including fabric pieces, textured papers and yarn.

Their original stories, along with all of the other winning entries, will be featured in a special program airing on WFYI Channel 20 this fall. Autumn and Levi were interviewed at “Let’s Meet” as part of the television program.

Their stories will also appear on the WFYI website later this year. For now, you can see all of the winners’ names and story titles at www.wfyi.org/readingrainbow.

What started as simply “something different” to do on a cold Spring Break has really paid off. Autumn is too old to enter the contest next year, but Levi is looking forward to writing another story. Meanwhile, look for Autumn to join atGeist as a junior reporter soon.

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