Redmond student wins library card design contest

Savannah Jarrett, a sixth grader from Redmond's Horace Mann Elementary School, was one of three winners in a King County Library System Foundation contest to design a library card for kids and teens.

Jarrett, representing the Redmond Regional Library, won the elementary school division of the contest. Prizes were also awarded in a middle school/junior high division and high school division. Around 1,500 entries were submitted from students near and far.

Each of the winners received a $100 gift card for Barnes and Noble Books, funded by the library system foundation.

And Jarrett's drawing of a cat, contentedly napping atop a tall stack of books, will be featured on actual King County Library System cards and keychain tag versions of library cards  — about 25,000 of each.

A loyal library visitor, Jarrett said she is at the Redmond branch "about every other day." She found out about the library card design contest while searching online for a book. This was the first contest she's ever entered and won.

Explaining her design, she said, "I draw animals better than people. I like animals a lot." She has contributed some comics to her classroom newsletter at Horace Mann. Her favorite was about a Killer Whale named Oliver, inspired by a field trip to Puget Sound. She said she'd like to become an illustrator of children's chapter books. She also likes to write fiction.

What advice would Jarrett give to other kids and teens, to encourage them to read and to use their public library?

"If you didn't read, you wouldn't learn much," she noted. "Reading can tell you about everything. If you don't know about something, you can go to the library to look it up."

Besides reading and drawing, Jarrett loves to cook and bake. Her specialties are cookies and macaroni and cheese. This summer, she will visit her grandparents, go camping in Wisconsin — and of course, do lots of reading.

The Redmond Regional Library is located at 15990 NE 85th St. For information, call (425) 885-1861 or visit www.kcls.org.

Contact Redmond Reporter Reporter Mary Stevens Decker at mdecker@redmond-reporter.com or (425) 867-0353, ext. 5052.

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