Tikatok Partners with Computers for Youth on Writing Contest
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SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 11/10/2008 9:19:00 AM
Tikatok.com, the online children's book community is joining forces with Computers for Youth (CFY) as part of a greater initiative to unleash creativity and imagination in all children—and also identify a deserving individual as "Parent of the Year."In their first joint program, Tikatok and the nonprofit CFY, which works with schools to provide computers and related services to needy families, will run a writing contest for children from low-income households in 20 schools in the New York City area. Participating children will write about how their parent has been a positive influence on their education and has helped them improve their home learning environment. The "parent" can be any adult who works with the child as a learning partner.
Children will use Tikatok's StorySparks, creative story prompts to help them write their narrative. The best story will be chosen from each of the 20 schools. Tikatok will print the winning stories as hardcover books, including the child's original story and illustrations, allowing the winners to become published authors. The contest finalists and their parents will be invited to CFY's annual awards ceremony in New York City on June 10, 2009.
In addition to this writing contest, CFY will provide a link to Tikatok.com on the desktop of each computer given to the families in its program to encourage all children to create, illustrate, print, and share their own original stories.
"Tikatok is a great partner for us because, like CFY, they are focused on stimulating creativity and a love of learning in young children through technology tools," said Elisabeth Stock, CEO of CFY. "The writing contest is a fun and important way for children to express their excitement for learning and pay tribute to their most important learning partners—their parents. By collaborating with Tikatok, we can publish these creative works into real books that children can share with their friends and family, and reinforce the idea that learning is a family affair."
