St. Paul, Minn., Thursday, Jan. 17 – Today, Twin Cities Public Television (tpt) announced its first annual PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest, designed to promote the advancement of children’s literacy skills through hands-on, active learning.  The Contest, made possible in part by financial support from Easy Student Publishing, encourages children in grades K-3 to celebrate creativity by submitting their own original stories and illustrations.

“TPT is committed to providing opportunities and resources for kids to express their creativity and have fun while learning,” said Kathleen O’Donnell, Director, Family & Education Services, tpt. “The PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest helps children build valuable literacy skills for success in school and life.”

How the Contest Works

Beginning January 26, when the famous WordGirl from the PBS KIDS Go! show kicks things off at the Kingfield/Fulton Minneapolis Winter Market, children in the tpt viewing area can submit their entries through March 29 to the PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest. TPT will select local winners in April and award great prizes, including $125 in books or other media from local partner Mackin Educational Resources to the educator or librarian at the organization which submits the winning student’s stories. Winners will be announced at a celebration on April 20 featuring live music, a children’s author courtesy of Mackin, plus more books and fun, and they will be featured in the May MN Parent Magazine, as well as on air.

Other MN stations participating are Pioneer Public TV and Prairie Public TV. Parents and teachers can chose a local station contest, or submit an independent entry.

The local winners will then be entered into the national contest where a panel of esteemed judges will rank the top 12 entries.  National winners will be announced during the summer of 2013, receive prizes, including tablets, e-readers and MP3 players, and have their winning stories be featured on pbskids.org/writerscontest.

Creative Writing Resources

The Contest is supported by a robust set of resources for children, parents and teachers.  Story ideas, activity sheets, along with the previous winning entries are available on the Contest website to inspire children during the brainstorming process. PBS LearningMedia is also offering a collection of online teacher resources for use in classrooms nationwide. 

To enter the Contest and for more information on entry rules and contest resources visit www.tpt.org/writers.

TPT.org /Learn

This is one of many resources tpt provides parents, educators, and other caregivers to help improve learning outcomes for kids. tpt.org/learn is a rich site, with community events like the writers contest, plus tips, tools, and activities that harness the power of media in ways that parents and educators can use to help engage children and youth.

PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest Honorary Judges

A panel of America's foremost children's authors, illustrators and content experts will serve as honorary judges for the PBS KIDS GO! Writers Contest. The 2013 honorary national judges include:

• Lisa Henson: As Chief Executive Officer of The Jim Henson Company, Henson serves as an executive producer of Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train, both currently airing daily on PBS KIDS, and Pajanimals, a musical puppet series airing daily on Sprout.

• Jeff Kinney: As a New York Times bestselling author, online game developer and designer, Kinney has been named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. His seventh book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Third Wheel, is the biggest print book of 2012. His book series has over 83 million in print worldwide, translated into more than 40 languages. He spent his childhood in the Washington, D.C., area and moved to New England in 1995. Jeff lives in southern Massachusetts with his wife and their two sons.
  

• Kate Klimo: As Vice President and Publisher of the Random House/Golden Books Group, she has been responsible for extending the Seuss brand into new formats including board and novelty books, and publishing non-fiction celebrations of Dr. Seuss's life and works. Klimo has nearly 30 years of experience at Random House; more than 15 of them spent working on All Things Seuss. She is also the production executive of The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! Kate is the author of many books for young readers, including 12 titles in the Cat in the Hat's Learning Library series. She has also written for young adults (The Centauriad Series) and has a new series for children, Dog Diaries, launching in January 2013.

• Jarrett Krosoczka: Two-time winner of the Third to Fourth Grade Book of the Year in the Children’s Choice Book Awards, author and illustrator for sixteen published books – ten picture books and six graphic novels. He has seen his work recommended by national publications like Newsweek, The New York Times and USA Today. His Punk Farm and Lunch Lady series are also in development to be feature films.

• Susan Meddaugh: Author and illustrator of Martha Speaks, the best-selling book series, as well as a creative producer of the award-winning PBS KIDS series of the same name. Susan grew up in New Jersey, studied art and illustration, and now lives in Massachusetts with her family — including her dogs of course.

• R.L. Stine: As one of the best-selling children's authors in history, he has sold over 350 million books that have been read all over the world including Goosebumps - one of the best-selling children’s series of all-time. R.L. lives in New York City with his wife Jane and his dog Minnie.