Storybook Success at the Age of 9 : San Pedro Girl Among Winners in Young Writer’s Contest

Bethany Martin is like many girls her age.

The energetic third-grader likes going to movies, making bracelets and having her friends stay overnight at her house. But unlike her friends, Bethany is a published author at the age of 9.

The young San Pedro resident, who for years had hoped to have one of her short stories in print, has entered the literary world by being selected as one of 108 winners nationwide in the fourth annual competition by the Young Writer’s Contest Foundation.

Improve Communication Skills

Chosen from more than 10,000 poems, essays and short stories submitted by first- through eighth-graders, the winning works were published in late May in a book titled “Rainbow Collection: Stories and Poetry by Young People.”

The Young Writer’s Contest Foundation, based in McLean, Va., and financed mostly by a grant from Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities, encourages children to improve their communication skills.

“I’m excited to see her get some recognition for her work,” said Bethany’s mother, Joanne Martin, who owns a typesetting and graphic arts business in Cypress. “But it’s weird that at the age of 9 she has already achieved her life’s goal.”

But it hasn’t taken Bethany long to set a new goal. “Now I want to write a big story and get it published,” she said.

Bethany’s winning story, “Meg and the Week of Despair,” which was submitted by her teacher, Leanne von Mittenwald, tells of a young girl who learns about responsibility and disappointment.

“The lesson is that you should think about what you do before you do it,” said Bethany, who attends Montessori Greenhouse School in Garden Grove. “You try to think about the consequences before you act.”

According to her mother, Bethany may have shown a strength in writing, but her real love is reading. “I will take her to the grocery store with me, and she will find an empty aisle and sit down and read,” Martin said. “She reads all the time. Sometimes she worries that she is going to read up all the good books.”

But Bethany is no bookworm, her mother said. “Most people would think that if all this kid does is read, she must not have any friends. But that is not how she is. She has lots of friends, just like any other girl her age.”

Bethany’s father, John, 35, a computer programmer, attributes his daughter’s love for books to the bedtime stories he and his wife read to her. And when Bethany learned how, she began reading to her parents.

“She is an excellent writer and reader,” Von Mittenwald said. “She gets a lot of ideas from reading.

“She is a very introspective child. She thinks about things that other children her age don’t think about--like world peace.”

Bethany, an only child, said she enjoys reading fiction, mysteries and stories about people and animals.

Her favorite authors include Ann Martin and Judy Blume, both writers of fiction for young people. She said her own stories come from ideas she gets while reading, as well as from personal experiences. “I think about things that I hope will happen or I want to happen,” she said.

Cards for Potential Clients

Bethany is so enthusiastic about writing that she has started her own business. Her mother printed dozens of business cards so Bethany could pass them out to potential clients who are in the market for a poem or a short story.

“So far, I have only sold a few stories to friends and relatives,” Bethany said. “But I hope to do more business soon.”

The young author considers someday becoming a paleontologist, because of her interest in dinosaurs, or an astronomer, because of her love for star-gazing, or a librarian, because of her infatuation with books.

And, of course, she thinks about becoming a writer.

“What ever else she is, writing will always be there,” Martin said.

“Today at the mall I kind of acted up. Daddy says that I acted selfish because I cried when I did not get a little toy that I wanted. Daddy says I need to learn how to handle disappointments. Now Mom and Dad have decided that for a week I will have to go to bed half an hour earlier. Boy, did that make me mad! I don’t really think it’s fair. But they say it’s too bad, and that it will make me stronger when I grow up. I think that’s foolishness, but they don’t.”

Meg closed her diary and sat on her bed. It had been a long day. The next day was Monday. When Meg got to school she started to do her work. At the end of the day Meg’s mother picked her up and brought her home. Before Meg knew it, it was 8:30.

“Time to go to bed, Meg,” her father called.

“OK,” Meg yelled back. “Mom, will you read to me?” Meg asked.

“We have to read before 8:30.”

“But Mom--”

“Good night, dear.”

Meg went to her room and closed her door. Then she took out her diary.

“Maybe if I’m good all week I won’t have to go to bed early on Friday, because they know how much I like to stay up late on Friday.”

Meg closed her diary and fell asleep.

The next day as she walked to school she felt both happy and sad.

At the end of school, Meg ran all the way home. When she got there she did her homework quickly, and then she danced for a while. Then she ate dinner.

When 8:30 came, her dad called, “Time to go to bed, Meg.”

After she got in bed, she fell asleep thinking pleasant thoughts.

On Thursday, Meg knew she had been good all week. She hoped her parents would not make her go to bed early on Friday.

So on Friday night, Meg went to her room and started to read. Seven-thirty went by, then eight came and went. Meg was really enjoying the book she was reading.

Then, 8:30 came. Meg heard her father call, “Time for bed, Meg.”

Meg felt as though her heart stopped beating. She had been good all week, but she slowly closed her book and went to sleep.

The next day, which was Saturday, Meg woke up and stretched. She sat quietly on her bed listening to the birds outside her window. She reached for her diary.

“I think I really learned a lesson this week. I know I have to be responsible for the way I act. Mom and Dad will be pleased that I understand that better now.”

Meg closed her diary and sighed. It had been a long week.