Now in its 11th year, the Foyles Young Poets of the Year Award   is the only national award for aspiring young poets between the ages of 11-17. Previous winners include some of the best young poets in writing today and the Award is a great opportunity for young people to show off their creative talent.

Judges and poets Ian Macmillan and Eva Salzman are now calling all young poets to send them their poems in their search for the Foyle Young Poets of 2008. Entry is free - all they need to do is submit their poems on the FYP website.

 Prizes include - for 15-17 year olds - the chance to attend a week-long residential course at The Hurst in Shropshire, one of the prestigious Arvon Centres where they will be tutored by this year's judges. Five winners in the 11-14 range will also win a 3-day poetry residency for their school. Plus there are book prizes from top poetry publishers Faber & Faber, Bloodaxe Books and Salt Publishing and 100 winners will be invited to attend the award ceremony in London on National Poetry Day in October.

 The deadline for entries is 31 July 2008.

The Costa Awards are searching for young readers betweent he ages of 9 and 13 to take part in the judging process for the prestigious book award.

Costa, is searching for three budding judges to join the panel that will select the p 2008 Costa Children’s Book Award winner. Past winners of the Award include Philip Pullman, JK Rowling, Michael Morpurgo and Roald Dahl.

The  three young judges will need to read up to 12 books during September and October and attend a judging meeting in central London where they’ll sit alongside this year’s three adult judges: author Victoria Hislop, children’s book buyer John Newman of Newham Bookshop and Northamptonshire Schools Library Service Adviser, Sue Polchow.

In addition to the tough task of selecting the best children’s book published in the last 12 months, the three lucky winners will also receive an all expenses paid trip to London to attend the glittering 2008 Costa Book of the Year awards ceremony. They’ll get the chance to attend the gala dinner and rub shoulders with authors and celebrities and each take home £100 worth of book tokens. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all budding book fans!

To enter, aspiring judges will need to write a 200-word review of a book they  have recently enjoyed and enter it via the Costa Book Awards website: www.costabookawards.com . The three young judges will be chosen by a panel including best-selling children’s author, Dame Jacqueline Wilson, and Costa Book Awards Director, Bud McLintock. The deadline for entries is midnight on 8th August 2008.

To coincide with the paperback publication of Charlie Bone and the Wilderness Wolf and int he lead-up to the publication of Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock (the penultimate adventure) , Egmont is inviting entries to a competition to create an online computer game for the Charlie Bone website www.charlie-bone.com .

The competition will open on the 1st of July and all entries must be submitted by 1st of September when Charlie Bone and the Shadow of Badlock publishes.

Full detail, terms and conditions can be found at www.charlie-bone.com  

14 - 19 year olds are invited to enter Sky's Young Journalist of the Year Award.

The Sky Young Journalist Awards aims to find and celebrate the very best journalist talent across online, television, radio and print. The competition encourages young people between the ages of 14-19 years old to report on local, national or international news stories that matters to them.

The judging panel will be made up of members from the Sky News team and will be chaired by Sky News TV Presenter Kay Burley.

How to Enter The competition closes on Monday 1st September at noon. You can enter one or more of the following categories:

•  * TV - provide an outline of the TV interviews, locations and spokespeople that would make up a TV news story, to be submitted with an overview of the whole story angle and ideas for additional footage.
• * Online - write an article on a local, national or international news story for Online publication, with relevant links.
• * Radio - provide a written outline of the interviews, locations and spokespeople that would make-up a news story, to be submitted with an overview of the whole angle.
• * Print - write an article on a local, national or international news story. 

The overall winner will win: * An iMac plus Final Cut Express * A tour of Sky News Studio plus a workshop with a Sky News specialist

Full details and conditions from Sky Bigger Picture Website