By Wendy Owen | The Oregonian/OregonLive
As eighth-graders, Grace Tran, Catherine Lian and Len Nguyen, wrote and illustrated a children’s book called, “Masterpiece,” as eighth-graders at Stoller Middle School. That book won them the grand prize for fiction in a Scholastic national book-writing competition.
Vietnamese students won the grand prize for fiction in a Scholastic national book-writing competition. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images for Saban Brands)
Scholastic has since published the book, and it is available at Scholastic book fairs across the U.S.
The three girls, who are now high school students, returned to Stoller to talk about “Masterpiece” and to sign books. Tran and Lian now attend Westview High and Nguyen attends Sunset High.
“Masterpiece” is the story of a girl in search of artistic inspiration who visits a museum of art and finds herself on a journey inside the art itself. She walks through the works of some of the world’s greatest artists from Salvador Dali and Vincent Van Gogh to Katsushika Hokusai and Andy Warhol.
Nguyen and Tran planned the book. Lain illustrated the majority of it and Tran wrote most of it. Nguyen drew the cover and contributed to the writing.
The award came with commendations, 5,000 Scholastic Dollars for Stoller to buy books, and 100 copies of “Masterpiece.”
