Chris Evans announced on the BBC Radio 2 Breakfast Show that children’s writing competition 500 Words is to return for the second year running. Last year’s inaugural competition was a great success with almost 30,000 entries from kids across the UK.
The Chris Evans Breakfast Show is once again appealing to listeners aged 13 and under to compose an original work of fiction in no more than 500 words. There are two categories - for children aged nine and under and those aged between ten and thirteen, with three winners in each category.
The Gold Medal winner in each category will win Chris Evans’ height in books (6ft 2”) plus 500 books for their school library; with the runner up Silver Medal winner receiving Chris’s One Show co-host, Alex Jones’ height in books (5ft 6”). The Bronze Medal winner will pick up their own height in books.
The writers of the Top 50 stories (25 from each age category) will be invited to attend a live broadcast of The Chris Evans Breakfast Show from Hay Festival on Friday 1st June. The six lucky winners will be announced live on air and read out by celebrities during the show.
Five leading children’s authors will be judging the entrants - Dame Jacqueline Wilson, David Walliams, Lauren Child, Andy Stanton and Charlie Higson. The celebrity judges will pick their six favourites from a short list of the Top 50 from each age group, who will have been chosen initially in the competition by a team of volunteer teachers and librarians. Last year 900 teachers volunteered to help with the initial selection. The National Literacy Trust will adjudicate the second stage of the process.
Chris Evans said: “We were overwhelmed last year to be inundated with thousands of truly creative and fantastic entries from nearly 30,000 kids, and in 2012 we need your help to make the competition even bigger than before. To read is good, but to write is even better and dare I say it, can even be more fun.”
(Source : BBC Press Release)
No comments:
Post a Comment