Maddi Larson, a 5th grade student at MOTL, is the national grand-prize winner for creating a character for Scholastic's Storyworks magazine's "Create a Character" contest. As part of a class project, Maddi and her 18 classmates entered the competition. About 8,000 students nationwide, ages 8 to 11, also participated.

Maddi Larsen, 10, won the Scholastic Storyworks national writing contest by creating a character that lives with cougars. She shows a sketch of her creation above.

The April/May edition of Storyworks will announce Maddi as the winner. Children's book author Jane Yolen will write a story featuring Maddi's character.

"I'm very excited," Maddi said. "When my teacher told me, I was like 'Why me — out of 8,000 kids in the whole nation, why me?'"

Read about Maddi in the news:
Mission Viejo Girl Wins National Writing Contest

How to Create a Winning Character