April 7, 2007

Evergreen student places first in Santa Clara
County Reading Council writing contest

Most Holy Trinity School fourth grader Olivia Basilio, an Evergreen resident, placed first in her grade level category of the Santa Clara County Reading Council’s most recent writing contest.

The topic for the piece, ‘What Tuned Me Into Reading’ gathered entries from over 30 schools in the county. The day of the awards ceremony began with a writing workshop sponsored by the 45-year-old Santa Clara County Reading Council. Author guest and children’s book writer Cynthia Chin-Lee inspired the children with her experiences as she wrote her books. Among all winning entries, Basilio’s piece had the honor of being the only one selected to be read in front of the audience at the awards ceremony. She received her prize along with other grade level winners last March 24, at the Earl Frost Elementary School in San Jose.

Basilio’s entry is as show below:

“What ‘Tuned’ Me Into Reading”

By Olivia Basilio, fourth Grade, Most Holy Trinity School

How would you like to step into a world that opens wide to you when you’re bored, angry, upset, or shunned from your friends? Well, that world is any and every book. A book can open up to you with a touch of a finger, a turn of a page. One day, a few years ago, when reading was still “homework”, my mother came home from lunch and brought me a book she bought from a Japanese store she visited with a friend. The book was one of those Japanese Manga comic books that are read from right-to-left. Later that day, my mother got mad at me (for a reason I will not say). I get very upset when my mother gets mad at me, as most children do. I wanted to take my mind off it, so I read the book. It was like the story swallowed me whole, but spat out all my troubles, like it had eaten a part of a meal it didn’t like. I had discovered the miraculous medicine that cures anything completely (at least for a period of time). Reading was that medicine. I’ve been reading like I’m obsessed with it since then. I never go anywhere without something to read. Reading is a complete other world of somehow letters and ink and I’m never going to stop.