PBS Kids Writers Contest facts for kids
The PBS Kids Writers Contest is a yearly competition. It's for students from kindergarten up to 12th grade. Kids in the United States can enter. They get to show off their writing and art skills. This contest started in 1995. It was first known as the Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest. In 2009, it was relaunched with a new name.
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How the Contest Began
In 1995, the Reading Rainbow TV show creators started this competition. Reading Rainbow was a popular children's program. The contest was made to go along with the show. It aimed to help children love reading for their whole lives. The competition encouraged kids to write and draw their own picture books.
Growing Popularity
Kids would send their stories to local TV stations. These stations would judge the entries first. Winners from the local level would then go on to the national contest. After a few years, the number of stories sent in grew a lot. Almost 40,000 entries were submitted across the country. The number of kids taking part kept growing. It reached its highest point in 2007 with over 50,000 entries.
Changes and New Beginnings
The future of the contest became unclear around 2006. This was because the Reading Rainbow TV show faced money problems. New episodes of the show stopped being made in April 2006. The show then only played old episodes. Because of these money issues, the national contest was canceled in 2006.
Local Contests Continue
Even though the national contest stopped, local public broadcasting stations kept their own competitions going. Many kids still wanted to join in 2007. So, WNED-TV in Buffalo, New York stepped in. This station was a co-creator of Reading Rainbow. WNED-TV decided to manage the national judging again. This meant the national contest started up once more in 2007.
A New Name for the Contest
The Reading Rainbow reruns finally ended in August 2009. But the contest was still very popular. About 90 stations were taking part. People wanted the competition to continue and grow. So, PBS decided to keep the winning stories available online. This lasted until December 2009.
Relaunching the Contest
In November 2009, PBS worked with WNED-TV again. They relaunched the competition. It kept the same rules as before. But it had a new name: PBS Kids Go! Writers Contest. They also made a new website for the contest. This site shared information and kept old winning stories. In 2014, the name changed again. It became the PBS Kids Writers Contest. This happened after PBS Kids Go! was no longer used.
How to Enter the Contest
Children in kindergarten through third grade can enter the contest. They must live in an area served by a participating local station. Stories can be real or made-up. They can be prose (like a regular story) or poetry. Each story must be written by one child.
Story Rules
Stories from kindergarten and first-grade students need to be 50 to 200 words long. They also need illustrations. For second and third graders, stories should be 100 to 350 words. These also need illustrations. Each local PBS station judges entries by grade level. The first-place winners from each station then go on to the national contest later in the year.
See also
- Lune Spark Young Writers' Short Story Contest
- National Kids-in-Print Book Contest for Students
- National Novel Writing Month
- Three-Day Novel Contest
