PULLMAN, Wash. – What does a child do when she’s sleepless in Seattle? Inspired by a restless night and a childhood spent near Puget Sound, aspiring teacher Jessica Peterson answered that question and won Washington State University’s 2012 Inga Kromann Book Award.
The annual contest gives WSU education students incentive to write, design and illustrate their own children’s books.
Peterson’s winning storybook is “Sweet Dreams.” In it, a little girl sneaks out of her house after dark to go on a bike ride. She passes the city, the park, the beach and the zoo. Animals follow her home.
“It doesn’t really explain much,” said Peterson. “I’m hoping that readers will use their imaginations to fill in the blanks.”
The daughter of LeAnn and Davis Peterson of West Seattle, Peterson likes to ride her bike from her home to Alki Beach. Her favorite line in the book is: “And when she reached the edge of the ocean, she sighed. Because what is more beautiful than the ocean?”
Peterson, a junior, plans to teach second or third grade.
The annual Kromann contest is open to students in the Department of Teaching and Learning on WSU’s Pullman campus. Books selected for the top Medal Award receive a gift certificate to the campus bookstore and a professionally bound copy of the book.
Students whose books win the Honor Award also receive a gift certificate. This year’s Honor Award winners are “Tortoise and the Hare” by Nicole Weible, “Owen and Raffy Travel to Paris” by Megan Williams, and “Kaleb’s Pirate Adventure” by Kryssa Isobe.
Copies of the winning books also go to the WSU Libraries collection and to Inga Kromann, who was the children’s literature professor at WSU for 38 years. She created an endowment to support the book contest, which was started by her successor, Associate Professor Jane Kelley.
Contacts:
Jane Kelley, WSU College of Education, jekelley@wsu.edu, 509-335-8852
Julie Titone, WSU College of Education, jtitone@wsu.edu, 509-335-6850