University of Wisconsin - Extension

The Emmy award-winning PBS series, Reading Rainbow, announces its seventh annual Young Writers & Illustrators Contest conducted in cooperation with Wisconsin Public Television (WPT)

The contest runs from February 1 to March 30 and encourages children from kindergarten through the third grade to write and illustrate their own stories.

All entrants will receive a Certificate of Achievement signed by Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton. First place and honorable mention winners in Wisconsin and their local school libraries will receive special prizes and a collection of Reading Rainbow videos.

Local first-place winners will be sent to the national competition to be judged by a panel comprised of noted children's book authors, illustrators, publishers, educators and organization representatives from the American Library Association and the National Council of Teachers of English.

Prizes for the national winners include computers, printers, VCRs and Reading Rainbow library sets of ten videos and book titles. A similar Reading Rainbow set will be awarded to each winner's school and local library.

Reading Rainbow airs at 2:30 p.m. weekdays on WPT.

For additional information or to request materials, contact WPT at (608) 265-5035 or e-mail kids@wpt.org; log on to http://www.wpt.org/kids/wipbs/reading.html for entry forms.

WPT is a service of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin-Extension.

Wisconsin Public Television is a place to grow through learning on WHA-TV/Madison, WPNE-TV/Green Bay, WHRM-TV/Wausau, WLEF-TV/Park Falls, WHLA-TV/La Crosse and WHWC-TV/Menomonie-Eau Claire.