2022 Champions - Padua College Tyabb
BOOK IN A DAY COMPETITION – FORMAT AND RULES
The competition objective is for a team to create an illustrated novella that is between 4000 – 6000 words in length, within one day.
The competition will take place over 3 days:
1. Workshop day
2. Book in a day writing
3. Critique, feedback and presentation day
Schools may enter 1 team, to comprise of a maximum of 8 students from Years 7-10 and will provide their own materials for students (including art supplies for the Illustrator).
Each team must have at least 2 students from Y 7-8.
It is expected that the same team will attend all 3 days in order to build skills needed for the competition.
Workshop day
The Workshop day will be presented by local author/s, illustrator/s as well as SIS teachers. Students will spend time working within their school-based teams as well as working with students from other schools.
Workshops will be based around writing and illustration skills, with the view to improving on skills needed to write a quality novella in a single day.
The Workshop day will take place on Thursday, 22 July from 10am-2pm at a SIS host school with a lunch break from 12:00-12:30.
The host school will provide lunch for teachers. Students will need to bring their lunch. Canteen will NOT be available for students.
Book in a day writing day
The Book in a day competition
Arrival 8:45am
Commence 9:00am
Finish 5:00pm
Schools may enter 1 team, to comprise of a maximum of 8 students from Years 7-10 and will provide their own materials for students (including art supplies for the Illustrator). Each team must have at least 2 students from Y 7-8.
The front and back cover of the book must be illustrated, with further illustrations throughout the book. All illustrations may be created by hand or digitally and must be original or copyright free.
The book must not include any reference to individual students or school names.
It is anticipated that some preparation and lead-up coaching is provided to the competition team, however the accompanying staff member is to supervise their own students and must not assist during the competition.
Four school library venues are required to host the competition and will be separated into Zones 1, 2, 3 and 4. Each Library must provide a working space for each team, enable access to
computers, internet, printers, binding equipment and whiteboards/butchers paper.
All material must be suitable for the intended audience - Yrs 7/8 students. Proof-reading is undertaken by supervisors before publication to school communities.
Prior to the competition, the SIS Co-ordinator from each participating school will advise SIS:-
5 parameters
- Primary Character 1, Primary Character 2, Non-Human Character, Setting, Issue, 5 random words which must appear at least once somewhere in the story.
The story must include and be written around the 5 parameters provided and the 5 random words are to be included anywhere in the story without adaptation.
The writing prompts will be assigned by SIS and only revealed to teams by the host school at 9:00am on the competition day.
At 5:00pm the completed novella must be uploaded to DropBox and a bound hard-copy to the host school staff. The host school will post the material in the next available mail to the SIS Cultural Coordinator, C/- John Paul College, PO Box 3105, Frankston, 3199.
Reading and Judging
SIS will send 3-4 novellas electronically to each school and the SIS Co-ordinator will then arrange for copies to be made available to 20-30, Year 7/8 students, to read and vote.
The SIS Co-ordinator will arrange for voting slips/survey monkey to be available so that the students can read and rank each novella from 1st to 4th.
Each book should be judged on the following criteria:-
- compliance with all rules outlined above
- story structure – well-planned & executed; consistency of tone; plot & characterisation; imaginative
- literary excellence – correct spelling & grammar; good vocabulary
- reader engagement & audience appropriateness
- illustrations – contribution to the story; technical competence & appeal
- final appearance of the bound book
The SIS Co-ordinator will advise schools of the finalists
The top 4 novellas will then be sent to Scholastic Australia for judging.
The winning novella will be the story which has the highest rating provided by the supporting publishing organisation.
Feedback/presentation day
Feedback and presentations will be a half-day presented by SIS teachers and students.
The session will include time for self and team reflection; some discussion/presentations/feedback about the works read; and presentation of the SIS Book in a day shield and badges and special awards.
The SIS Book in a Day Championship is proudly supported by Walker Books & Campion Education.
