
DATE: Tuesday, June 24, 1997                TAG: 9706240276

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATT BOWERS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   33 lines

YOUNG WRITER PLACES 2ND OUT OF 10,000 IN CONTEST

Write what you know, the experts say.

Kindergartner Nathan E. Lassiter knows kitchen-counter science experiments: baking soda-and-vinegar reactions, mixing food colors, making a balloon stick to the wall using the static electricity from his hair. He particularly loves the balloon thing.

So he wrote about them, and found out Monday that the combination worked. He placed second out of almost 10,000 kindergarten entries nationwide in the third annual ``Reading Rainbow'' Young Writers and Illustrators Contest. The contest is sponsored by the award-winning Public Broadcasting Service TV series.

Nathan, who's being home-schooled but who attended Rainbow Christian Academy when he entered the contest, wrote and illustrated ``Nathan's Experiments,'' a first-person piece in which he describes his experiments.

``Hi!'' he begins. ``I am Nathan. I am a scientist.''

Nathan won a videocassette recorder and ``Reading Rainbow'' library sets for his local school and library.

Nathan said his story was easy to write. ``I made it up,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: BETH BERGMAN/The Virginian-Pilot

Nathan E. Lassiter, who enjoys kitchen-counter science experiments,

examines his new microscope. The kindergartner won second place

out of about 10,000 entries in the national ``Reading Rainbow''

Young Writers and Illustrators Contest. He wrote about some of his

home experiments.