"Thirteen years ago, I hid something” and “They still haven’t found the body…” were effortlessly shared by Maddie. It came as no surprise that Maddie would be up for the challenge when Scholastic Scope asked students to write an imaginative, compelling, original short story that started with one of three first lines written by the famous author Jennifer A. Nielsen! 

“Maddie was going to do as she pleased and write as she knew she could and needed to. She didn’t need the prompts I offered,” said Dalton teacher Geoffrey Perry. “She didn’t need very much in the way of idea generation or scaffolding. Maddie had so much already built in her head. It was just about giving her the time and space to get it out.”

Maddie has won the Scholastic Scope Write-A-Story Contest for her story “Family of Thieves”! To check out Maddie’s winning entry please click here.