Tye River student wins first place in local story writing contest

By Erin McGrath

Published: May 21, 2008

When 6-year old Jarrett Tyree found out he had won first place in a Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest, he was excited.

“I said, ‘I’d never been in first place in anything,’” Tyree, a kindergartener at Tye River Elementary School, said.

Students from kindergarten to third grade entered the contest, which challenged them to tell their own stories and use their own illustrations. It was sponsored by Blue Ridge PBS.

Tyree was watching Reading Rainbow when he saw an advertisement for the contest.

“I saw the commercial and then I was thinking, ‘Hmm, I better enter that contest,’” Tyree said.

With his mother’s help, he wrote and illustrated a story entitled “My Trip to Mars.”

“I just made it up in my head and it popped out,” Tyree said.

The tale follows Tyree to Mars, where he makes friends with a few Martians and rides in a ‘planet rover.’

“I didn’t really go to outer space,” Tyree said.

Tyree and his family traveled to Roanoke on May 17 for an awards ceremony where he and his imagination received a certificate, a Reading Rainbow backpack, a DVD of Reading Rainbow stories and a $25 gift certificate to Barnes and Noble book stores.

Tyree’s story will now be entered into national contest where he has the chance to win books and a laptop computer.

He said he plans to enter the contest again next year.