Have you seen this Story Tubes thing yet?

Our friends at the Eleventh Stack (the Adult Services Blog) found this and forwarded it on. It looks very cool! It's a video contest sponsored by several public libaries and publishers. Kids make a 2 minute or less video about their favorite books!

This would be a fun thing to try! Here's a tip that one of my friends passed on to me: If you have a digital camera, it probably has a "video" setting. The camera may have an in-built time limit or it may let you record until the camera runs out of memory. Funny enough, on every camera I've ever seen the icon for the camera looks like an old fashioned reel camera...

Here's what the contest people want you to know:


StoryTubes 2008 National ContestTell, Tube, Vote for Fun and Prizes
Entry Deadline: April 20, 2008


StoryTubes is here! From New York to California, kids in Grades 1-6 are talking up their favorite books. You can too!

Along with your parent or guardian, follow these simple steps:

Make a 2-minute video about your favorite book;

Upload the video to YouTube; and

Come to this StoryTubes website and send in the link to your uploaded YouTube video using the online Contest Entry Form.

Beginning April 1, your video becomes part of a national contest!

Voting mania will then begin and happen each week in May! At the end of each week, one lucky contestant will win $500 in books. Their sponsoring organization (school, library or designated organization for home-schooled youth) will receive $1,000 in books.

Four Video Categories:
Hair-Raising Tales

From or For the Heart

Of Heroes and Heroines

Facts, Fads and Phenoms

Tell the story about your favorite book today. When entering, please don’t use your last name in the video. Entries will be evaluated on creativity, content and performance.

Everybody wins when kids get excited about stories. Help get the word out! Posters and flyers are downloadable here.

Thank you to the sponsoring publishers, Simon & Schuster, Scholastic, Eaglemont Press, DK Publishing, Charlesbridge Publishing and Shenanigan Books.

The StoryTubes partner libraries are: Northeast: Middle Country Public Library of Centereach; NY; Southeast: The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County/ImaginOn, Charlotte, NC; Midwest: Gail Borden Public Library, Elgin, IL; Northwest: King County Library System, Issaquah, WA; and Southwest: Pasadena Public Library, Pasadena, CA.