2026 Winners
Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2026 Young Author & Illustrator Competition!
All placing stories are kept at the library until after recognitions and hardbound orders are made. Families will be notified when they are able to pick up the original story from their home library. All first-place winning stories are hardbound and kept in the library’s permanent collection for everyone to check out and enjoy!
What is the Young Author and Illustrator Contest?
First through Sixth graders in Centre County may submit stories of their own creation to the Young Author and Illustrator Contest. Entries will be read and judged by community leaders and Library youth services staff. Each grade, First through Sixth, will be judged against all other participants in that grade level. 3 winners and 2 honorable mentions from each grade level will be chosen, and the 1st place winning stories will be bound as a hardback book which will stay in the library’s permanent collection!
Judging
Stories are judged by community leaders and Library youth services staff. Stories in each grade level are judged against one another with a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place (and 2 honorable mentions) being awarded to each grade level. Stories are selected based on originality, creativity, content, grammar, punctuation, completion and spelling. Entries are judged based on the content of the first 50 pages of their submission. Longer entries are still welcome and accepted. Winners are announced via the website, social media, and mail.
Publication
The 1st place winning stories are bound as a hardback book that will stay in the library’s permanent collection. All placing or honorable mention stories are eligible to be purchased as a hardbound book for your personal library at the cost of $24.75 per book. An order form will be available after story judging is complete.
