Ms. Martha Reads is back with new stories! The new season of Ms. Martha Reads launched in September and features winning stories from the 2024 PBS Kids Writers Contest.
Each year, WHRO Public Media invites students to pull out their pens and colored pencils and get creative! Students submit their stories, along with their original illustrations, and stories are judged by grade level.
Watch the show every Friday at 10 a.m. on the WHRO Facebook page. Stories are also featured on our website and archived on YouTube.
Your Story Could Be Featured
WHRO's writers contest is an annual competition for students in grades K-5. Students can write about any topic of their choice such as friendship, kindness, their family, or something that they like. There is also a category for environmental stories.
The 2025 competition begins January 2025 and ends Friday, March 28, 2025. Learn how to enter.
Watch the 2024 Awards Ceremony.
About Ms. Martha Reads
When Virginia leaders announced in March 2020 that schools across the Commonwealth would close for the remaining academic year due to concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, the education staff at WHRO Public Media quickly changed up their normal routines to seek new ways to support teachers and parents as they ventured into at-home learning.
Since her team couldn’t read to children in person, Martha Razor, manager of early childhood learning, decided to bring the stories to students virtually. The show became so popular the staff decided to keep it going!
Each week on Facebook, Martha reads a new story aloud. Rather than reading the books that children may already know, or could possibly find on their shelves at home, Martha reads stories that received high scores in the annual writers contest. These short tales are stories written by children, for children, with accompanying illustrations.
Watch the show every Friday at 10 a.m. on the WHRO Facebook page, and catch up on missed episodes at whro.org/marthareads.