We are happy to announce the winners of the 2013 KMOS Writers Contest!

A big" THANK YOU!" goes out to everyone who submitted an original story. This year, we had nearly 300 wonderful stories! All the stories will be returned either via US mail or sent to your school teacher for distribution.
The 1st place stories are headed to the national PBS Kids GO! Writers Contest! We're keeping our fingers crossed and wishing them good luck! However, we will not hear back from them until sometime in July.
We regret to inform everyone that we will not be having our traditional Awards Celebration this year. Due to some untimely and downright strange circumstances, the event had to be canceled this year. However, we hope to have the Awards Celebration back next year, better than ever! We know the young authors were looking forward to this, and we were too. We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience.
We thank our young writers for participating and encourage them to keep writing!

The winning entries of the 2013 Young Writers Contest are:

Kindergarten:
1st Place - Sofia H., "Trust Me" Columbia Independent School, Columbia
2nd Place - Hayley F., "I Love You" Kingdom Kid's Academy, Boonville
3rd Place - Sophia W., "Rose Travels the World" Marceline
Honorable Mention: Carter H., "Boomba Needs a Friend" CIS, Columbia

First Grade:
1st Place - Molly A., "The Horse Who Lost His Neigh" CIS, Columbia
2nd Place - Jack C., "The Ants and the Construction Site" California
3rd Place - Savannah N., "The Animal Safari" Green Ridge R-VIII, Green Ridge
Honorable Mention: Graham T., "Finding A Family" CIS, Columbia

Second Grade:
1st Place - Katherine E., "Crazy Daisy" Stover
2nd Place - Ella M., "The New Dog" Columbia Independent School, Columbia
3rd Place - Jaeden W., "Lizze's Star Adventure" Centerview
Honorable Mention: Amy W., " Grace is Back" Chesterfield

Third Grade:
1st Place - Luke C., "The Abandoned Track" California
2nd Place - Lauren H. , "The Time Machine" Jefferson City
3rd Place - Lexi B., "Grandma's Coo Coo Clock" Stover
Honorable Mention: Emma S., "Flip Crash Bang Boom" Warrensburg

First Place Entries to the National Contest
KMOS-TV will send the entries of the first place winners to the national Contest, where entries will be judged using the criteria outlined below. All decisions of the judges are final and not subject to appeal or review. Tie breakers will rely on creativity and originality category. National winners will be notified on or before August 31, 2013. Each national winner's story will be posted on the Contest Web site at pbskids.org/writerscontest in 2013. National prizes include tablet computers for four (4) first place winners (Approximate Retail Value ("ARV") $200 USD), e-readers (ARV $100 USD) for 4 second place winners, and MP3 players (ARV $75 USD) for 4 third place winners. PBS reserves the right to substitute any prize for a prize of equal or greater value, at the sole discretion of PBS. Prize recipients must allow a minimum of 4 to 6 weeks from notification to delivery. Prizes are not redeemable for cash, non-transferable, and non-substitutable, except at the sole discretion of Sponsor.

National Judging, Awards & Notification Entries will be judged on originality, creative expression, storytelling and integration of text and illustrations. The sponsoring PBS station will empanel a jury of no fewer than 3 judges to judge local submissions. Submissions will be judged on the following criteria:
+ 40% Creativity and originality of plot and/or themes,
+ 40% Story structure and use of literary devices,
+ 20% Relevance, quality and originality of illustration

Return of Entries KMOS will make every effort, but is not required, to return mailed entries. PBS, and or its affiliates, are not responsible for late, lost, stolen, misdirected, or mutilated mail.