Book report: Barons win contest

Chloe (left) and Ethan Baron look up the online book report videos they created for the 2008 National StoryTubes contest. Chloe's short video was voted first place in her category, winning her $500 in books. (BCR photo/Heather Holland)

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PRINCETON — Everyone remembers writing a book report during grade school, but most people probably didn’t do it the same way that Chloe and Ethan Baron recently did their report.

Chloe, 11, and Ethan, 7, each created a short online video book report to submit to the StoryTubes 2008 National Contest. The student-created videos were featured online beginning April 1 and were available for nationwide voting, with a different category featured each week during the month of May. There were four categories, including “Hair-Raising Tales,” “From or For the Heart,” “Of Heroes and Heroines” and “Facts, Fads and Phenoms.” Each child’s video was evaluated on creativity, content and performance.

Chloe’s video book report on “The Sacrifice,” by Kathleen Benner Duble, won first prize in the “From or For the Heart” category. She will receive $500 worth of books of her choice, as well as an additional $500 in books to be donated to the Princeton Elementary Schools.

Ethan’s video “Facts, Fads and Phenoms” category, is on the book, “The Essential Visual History of the World,” published by National Geographic.

Chloe and Ethan, who are home-schooled, say they enjoyed creating online videos for their book reports.

“I liked being able to do my book report in a way that was more creative and that people could see on the Internet,” Chloe said.

Ethan said he liked making a video because he wanted to talk about his favorite historical character in the book, Napoleon Bonaparte. Ethan discussed Bonaparte’s life during his two-minute video report and shared a picture of himself dressed as the historical figure for Halloween last year.

In her first-place video, Chloe performed the role of a reporter interviewing different characters from the book she chose, as well as playing the parts of each of the characters answering the reporter’s questions. She said it took less than an hour to film her report and another hour to edit it. Her mom, Jodi, helped Chloe and Ethan with the filming and editing of their videos.

Chloe was ecstatic when she found out her video had won first place in the “From or For the Heart” category.

“I was really happy,” she said. “I started screaming a lot. I was kind of surprised that I won since it was a national contest.”

Sean Baron, Chloe’s and Ethan’s dad, said he is always looking for new ways for his children to use technology in their learning. He has recommended the StoryTubes National Contest to several grade school teachers. Some plan to use the contest as a class project next year.

“It (StoryTubes) is a good way to use technology, and it reinforces their reading,” he said. “This is definitely a new way to do a book report.”

Chloe agreed that the contest was a new way to encourage an essential skill for children — reading. She said she enjoys reading for fun and for school.

“When I find a good book, I just can’t put it down,” she said. “I decided to write about “The Sacrifice” because it was one of my favorite books that I recently read, and I wanted to make my video about it.”

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