Books for Keeps For Children

Announcing Books for Keeps/Books For Children Autumn Competition for Schools

Can the children in your class produce two pages of BfK?

What we’re after is a double-spread of book-related writing, drawing and designing based on one, or some, of our regular BfK features: reviews of fiction or non-fiction, articles, authorgraphs, editor’s page, news, advertisements etc. In this case, though, the pages will be produced by and for the youngsters themselves – Books for Keeps for Children, in short.

THE PRIZES

An assortment of brand-new hardbacks and paperbacks, donated by our sponsors, Books For Children, and by Books for Keeps itself, valued as follows:

OVERALL COMPETITION WINNER £2,000 to be selected from

INFANT WINNER (Years 1 -2): £500

JUNIOR WINNER (Years 3-6): £500

SECONDARY WINNER (Years 7 -10): £500

In addition to receiving £2,500 of books for the school library, the overall winning entry

will be published in a future edition of BfK. In terms of writing with a clear sense of purpose and audience, how’s that for meeting National Curriculum demands?

THE RULES

CLOSING DATE: 30th December 1992

ELIGIBILITY:

Any group of children within the specified age categories (minimum group-size six, but no upper limit) working with or without adult guidance – the extent of the latter to be indicated briefly with the entry.

CONTENT:

To be decided by the children themselves based on their favourite fiction and/or non-fiction (not necessarily current). Use BfK for guidance, focusing either on one or an assortment of our features. Feel free, though, to offer book-ish aspects and angles we’ve missed.

SIZE:

One double-page spread of BfK – that’s adjoining A4 pages. Entries need not be submitted to our exact size, but must be reducible to our size for possible publication. Yes, we will look at a whole magazine but the actual spread being offered must be clearly indicated.

FORMAT:

Again, use BfK for guidance. You may also like consult the report on last year’s competition in BfK 73 (March ’92), though don’t feel constrained by this. Entries may be hand-drawn or written, typed, computer-set or some combination of all three… let the children choose. Entries in colour are permitted but must be suitable for black-and-white reproduction.

PLEASE NOTE

With your entry we need to know

• The address and telephone number of your school, along with the name of the supervising teacher.
• The age-category you’re entering, i.e. Infant, Junior or Secondary (primary schools may submit two entries).
• A brief account of adult input, if any.
• The actual double-spread being entered if you’re sending us more than two pages.

Alas, we can’t return entries since the postage involved might bankrupt us! Competition judges will be Teresa Grainger – Director of the Literacy Unit at Christ Church College, Canterbury; Sally Grindley – Editorial Director of BFC; Richard Hill – Managing Director of BfK; and Chris Powling – Editor of BfK. The judges’ decision will be final.

PLEASE SEND YOUR ENTRIES TO: Books for Keeps, 6 Brightfield Road, Lee, London SE12 8QF.