Contest

Our Fly into Reading contest is now closed! Thank you to everyone who read books and took the time to respond to them and enter the contest. Winners will be contacted directly. In the meantime, happy reading!

To celebrate 40 years of writing together, the Children’s Writers’ Round Robin is holding a reading contest! Students can win books and their schools or local libraries can win a free author reading!

Who can enter? Saskatchewan students from Kindergarten to Grade 12. There will be two student prizes in each age category: K-Grade 2, Grades 3-5, Grades 6-8, and Grades 9-12.

Can we read any books we want? For this contest, you must read books by the authors in the Children’s Writers’ Round Robin. All of the books on this website count. There are:

Which book should I read first? Hmm. That really depends on what kinds of books you like to read. To help you out, we have put together a list of books you might like in each category. It’s a good place to start.

Where do we get the books? Most of our books are available in the Saskatchewan Public Library System. Here is a list of books in the library system. They are not in all library branches, but you can request them through your local library branch and they will be sent to you.

You can also purchase the books if you wish. Many of the books are available at Our Little Book Shop (Saskatoon, mail order). They are available in a lot of other places as well. Other purchase links are on the individual book pages on this website. You can find a book page by:

  • typing the title into the search bar on the sidebar of this website
  • going to the Author page and clicking on the picture of the book
  • going to a genre page in the menu (or in the list above) and clicking on the picture of the book.

You can also type the book title into a search engine and it will show you where you can buy it.

How often can we enter? Students can enter once for every book they read from the list provided, between September 14 and November 1.

What are the prizes? Students will win three books of their choice from Our Little Book Shop. (Books must all be from different authors.) As well, their schools or local libraries or home-school groups will win a free author visit from our list of participating authors. The author visit may be in-person or virtual depending on where you are and who you choose.

How do you enter? To enter, read a book by one of our authors. Then go to our Enter the Contest page and enter your information. In the text box at the bottom, you can either:

  • Describe a scene that you liked from the book and say why you liked it. OR
  • Write an alternate ending to the story. How might it have turned out differently? OR
  • Write what you think will happen next after the end of the story. OR
  • Write another creative response of your choice. OR
  • Draw an illustration or graphic novel depiction of a scene in the story on a separate piece of paper or on a computer. Scan your finished picture or take a photo of it or save it to the computer. Then email it to robinscontest@gmail.com. In the box on the contest entry form, let us know that you are going to email an illustration. Then we will know to watch for it.

Why do we need your email? We need to be able to contact you if you win! If you are 13 or under, please use a teacher’s or parent’s email. Thanks. We will only use the emails for the contest, and nothing else.

What is the Fan Page? If we really like your entry, we would like to post it on our Fan Page with just your first name. There is a box to check on the Entry form to give us permission. But don’t worry — every entry goes into the draw, whether or not it goes on the Fan Page.

How will you choose the winners? We will divide the entries into the age categories, write them on slips of paper, and draw two names at random from each category.

When does the contest run? The contest starts on Saturday September 14 and runs to Friday November 1. We must receive your entries by midnight on November 1. We will do the draws on Monday November 4 and email the winners that same day. Winners have two weeks to reply to the email to say that they accept the prize.

How do we get the prizes? We will give the winners a discount code for Our Little Book Shop. Each winner may choose three books and order the books. They will be mailed to the address the winner provides.

The winner’s teacher or librarian or parent will arrange a reading directly with the author that they choose. Contact information for participating authors will be provided. Readings can be scheduled at any time that works for both the winner and the author.

Contest Rules

  1. Each entry on the Enter the Contest page counts as one entry for the draw.
  2. Entering the contest signifies your acceptance of these rules.
  3. Prizes must be accepted as awarded.
  4. If an author isn’t available to do a reading, the winner will be asked to choose a different one.
  5. A prize will be forfeited if the winner does not reply to the winning email notification after 14 days, or by November 19, OR if the winner declines the prize. In either case, the Robins will draw another winner for that prize.
  6. The rules also contain everything in the answers to the questions above.

Do you have a question not answered on this page? Email robinscontest@gmail.com and we will give you the answer — and then post it on this page!