Lacey Loves to Read
Lacey Loves to Read is a community reading initiative designed to encourage our area students to become lifelong readers and learners. Activities include a district-wide bookmark creation contest, short story writing events, and more. A notable children's author visits each year to share insights on writing and reading and foster a culture of reading in our school community. Follow us on Facebook!
Teen Writing & Art Contest
Deadline: January 10, 2026
Teen Writing and Art Contest Rules & Entry Instructions
Don't forget to read the rules & guidelines!
Bookmark Contest
Thank you for all your bookmark submissions!
Stay tuned for the winning submissions!
Bookmark Contest Rules & Entry Instructions
2025-26 Featured Author
Lacey loves to read Renée Watson!
Renée Watson is a #1 New York Times Bestselling author. Her books have sold over one million copies. Her young adult novel Piecing Me Together, received a Coretta Scott King Award and Newbery Honor. Many of her books are inspired by her experiences growing up as a Black girl in the Pacific Northwest. Her poetry and fiction center around the experiences of Black girls and explore themes of home, identity, body image, and the intersections of race, class, and gender.
Renée grew up in Portland, Oregon, and splits her time between Portland and New York City.
2018 Newbery Honor Book and Coretta Scott King Author Award Winner. Jade is a girl striving for success in a world that seems like it's trying to break her.
In this semi-autobiographical collection of poems, Renée Watson writes about her experience growing up as a young Black girl at the intersections of race, class, and gender.
Ryan Hart has a lot on her mind–school, self-image, and especially family. Even when the unexpected happens, she always finds a way forward, with grace and wit. And plenty of sunshine.
In accessible, engaging verse and prose, this is an important story of a girl's journey to heal, grow, and forgive herself. To read it is to see how many shades there are in grief, and to know that someone understands.
Spinning gorgeous verse, and weaving in the history of Black America, Watson beautifully introduces children to Cicely's world–the world that shaped a woman who went on to bring unparalleled grace to the stage and screen.
In order to impress a crush, Nala tells a few tiny lies to have enough in common with him. As she falls deeper into keeping up her lies and into love, she'll learn all the ways love is hard, and how self-love is revolutionary.
Thank you to our amazing partners!
Sponsored by:
Past Featured Authors
- 2025: Varian Johnson
- 2024: Donna Barba Higuera
- 2023: Dan Gemeinhart
- 2022: Brandon Mull
- 2021: Oge Mora
- 2021: Jason Reynolds
- 2020: Sharon M. Draper
- 2019: Kazu Kibuishi
- 2018: Kate DiCamillo
- 2017: Matt de la Peña
- 2016: Kwame Alexander
- 2015: Kashmira Sheth
- 2014: Patrick Carman
- 2013: Jennifer L. Holm
- 2012: Richard Jesse Watson
- 2011: Kirby Larson
- 2010: Joseph Bruchac
- 2009: Sy Montgomery
- 2008: Pat Mora
- 2007: Naomi Shihab Nye
- 2006: Walter Dean Myers
- 2005: Jane Yolen
- 2004: Gary Soto