US Students' Book Shortlisted for Local Award

A children's book by two NCS juniors has been shortlisted for a Washington-area writing award.

 

The Adventures of Honey Bun, written and illustrated by Paulina Song '18 and Kimberly Tan '18, is one of 10 finalists in B'nai B'rith International's Diverse Minds Writing Challenge. Open to high school students in Washington, Montgomery County and Prince George's County, the contest calls on participants to create a fiction or nonfiction book for elementary school-age children that tells a story of tolerance, diversity or inclusion. The winning entry will be published by B'nai B'rith, and first-, second-, and third-place authors will receive college scholarships.

 

Tan and Song recalled Monday how the book came together in two tumultuous weeks, driven by deadline pressure and their mutual interest to try something different.

 

Song has a penchant for creative writing, and when she learned of the contest—and that the winning entry would be published—through an email this winter from Dean of Student Life Jessica Clark, she thought, "This is really cool ... but I can't draw." But the idea continued to pique her interest, so weeks later, she approached Tan after a Cathedral service and asked if they could team up on it, Song contributing the story and Tan the artwork.

 

By this point, the submission deadline was close at hand, but Tan was taken with the idea and she began sketching ideas in earnest. "I really enjoy the opportunity to draw, but I don't often have the time to focus on it," she said. "This gave me the chance for hours and hours of drawing."

 

The two girls also began brainstorming on storylines. "Stereotypes was one of our ideas, and we thought it would be the one most people could relate to best," Song said. They developed a story about a character's discovery that her neighbors in the forest weren't as she had always heard them described.

 

But one key question for a children's book remained: What shape should that character take?

 

"I remember Kimberly messaging me to say, 'I like drawing bunnies,' " Song said. "I thought they looked really cute," Tan agreed. And the story of Honey Bun, the little rabbit who builds a glider to explore the forest and meet other animals, was born.

 

The final week before the submission deadline was a blur of writing and drawing, with the two girls swapping digital files back and forth at all hours. Despite her protestations, Song was drafted into doing some of the artwork, inking sketch outlines of characters that Tan could then color.

 

They submitted the book at literally the last minute: 11:59 pm on deadline day. Only then could they begin to reflect on and take pride in what they'd accomplished in their free time, something that ultimately was just a lark. "I didn't realize how much I'd enjoy doing this," Tan said, and Song said she, too, thought it was fun to "apply a skill and have it result in a finished product."

 

The girls will introduce Honey Bun to their target audience for the first time this week, reading the book to a group of Beauvoir students on Friday. And on June 7, they and the other finalist authors will be celebrated at a B'nai B'rith reception where the winner will be announced. We wish them good luck!