GPB Writers Contest Win!!!

Story title

It was the year 2013 and we were living in Nashville. My older son Aarav was about 9 months. We had the very basic Comcast TV service where you got the very basic free channels to watch. We barely watched any TV and one random day while he was crawling around and fidgeting with the remote, he hit a button and the PBS channel number 9, I so well remember, came on. 

There was a show called Super Why going on and he got hooked on to it so quickly; these characters with big eyes and it was a wonderful show teaching about letters and building small words and the sounds of each letter! So, I figured out that it came at certain times during the day, twice actually and I would selectively put on the TV for him to watch because he really got engrossed into it.

So that's how our relationship with PBS started. From there and of course we moved on to other shows also like Daniel tiger, Curious George, and the dinosaur show.

The Monster Blackhole

 And cut to 8 years now, we got to know about the GPB writers contest which is held from kindergarten till third grade and my son was in second grade this summer. So, one month before the submit date, we got to know about the contest and we thought, sure we can give it a try. Why not!

Planets meeting for the escape plan

Some of Aarav's fav subjects are space, maps, music, reading books!!! 

So, I pushed him a bit saying he's read so many books until now, he can easily come up with something... Anything using his fav topic. 

From there he quickly thought of space and planets and black holes. And soon he had a rough idea of what's the plot of the story. The technicalities are known best to him. He built the story around the plot - How to escape a black hole monster! 

A fictional story of all the planets and Sun planning how to escape a black hole monster!  

At the onset only, I really loved his story. I deeply wished for him to win. And if he didn't win, at least get his handwritten story back.

And guess what! Aarav won! 1st place in second grade! How proud and elated we are to share this! 😃

He won a certificate, a medal n lot of goodies from PBS!

Back in 2013, I would've never thought of being so closely connected with PBS in future! 

This was a great opportunity for Aarav, and we are glad he participated! 

Here is a link to his story in his own voice!

2021 Winner: 2nd Grade 1st Place – "How to Escape a Black Hole Monster" by Aarav Dharmaraj | Georgia Public Broadcasting (gpb.org)

 And her is the link to his story pdf!

Meet The Winners Of GPB's 2021 PBS KIDS Writers Contest | Georgia Public Broadcasting

Thank you PBS and GPB!🙏