Doodle 4 Google: The champion time-tripping doodlers

Dylan Hoffman, a Wisconsin second-grader, has clinched the national Doodle 4 Google contest for kids, earning his “Pirate Times� artwork -- which incorporates the Google logo -- 24 hours of fame Friday on the search engine giant’s home page.

At a ceremony Thursday at Google’s New York offices, Hoffman was crowned winner of the annual doodle contest, now in its fifth year, and was handed some sweet prizes. He’ll receive a $30,000 college scholarship and a Chromebook computer, and his elementary school in Caledonia, Wis., will get a $50,000 technology grant.

Southern California’s Herman Wang was a finalist with his intricate, futuristic “Retro City� doodle.

GALLERY: The national Doodle 4 Google winners

Wang was named California state winner earlier this month. As Google opened the contest to a national public vote, the West Covina sixth-grader and fellow students celebrated his win at an assembly at Suzanne Middle School in Walnut. After an oversized version of his artwork was unveiled, the soft-spoken Wang did a quick imitation of a politician: “Vote for me.�

Wang lost the big prize to Hoffman, but he and three others -- doodling on the time-travel theme -- gathered enough votes to be national finalists. They will each receive a $5,000 college scholarship.

Talia Mastalski, a fifth-grader from Indiana, Pa., was a finalist with “Traveling to Me.� Eighth-grader Susan Olvera of Lafayette, Ind., created “Traveling Back to the Future.� And Edison, N.J., native Cynthia Cheng, an 11th-grader, doodled the Viking-centered “A World of Adventure.�

The 50 state winners all traveled to New York City for an unveiling Thursday of an exhibition of their artwork at New York Public Library. Their doodles will be on display there through July 19.

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