short story competition - win pounds 2,000

Lis If you're a working mother, it's nice to have certain ritual things you do together. We moved to London six years ago from a village outside Carlisle and at first we were both a bit lonely. It was a big change. So the first long books I read to Alex were Anne of Green Gables and The Railway Children, both about children taken out of their secure environment. I'm sure it helped.

We've read so much since then: Nina Bawden's Peppermint Pig, What Katy Did, Little Women... What gives me pleasure now is when Alex goes to the classics of her own accord. My own mother took a lot of trouble to read to me and 40 years on we still discuss what we read. My grandmother had a tiny council house in Liverpool and a room we called the box room stuffed with books - Angela Brazil, Pollyanna, Anne of Green Gables and lots of Edwardian classics. My mum read them. I read them. And now my daughter's reading them. It makes a bond.

We think we're being virtuous reading to our children, but perhaps we're really trying to find out what kind of people they are. The response to a book is very revealing, and if your child doesn't like a book you've loved, it's very wounding. I was obsessed with historical novels, but my daughter maintains she doesn't like them. She reads Judy Blume whose books I'm a bit wary of. Let's say she sacrifices depth for a certain familiarity with a child's world.

But I don't like censorship. I was allowed to read absolutely anything and at a very early age I'd devour horrendous things in the Liverpool Evening Post. The same applies now to television. I'm happy for Alex to watch as much as she wants. It broadens her mind, and if it teaches her to enjoy narrative, all well and good. In that sense there isn't much difference between Beowulf and Neighbours. But however good a narrative you'll always go back to the book.

Alex I like long adventure stories and stories that have sequels. Basically I like things that'll take my mum a long time to read. At the moment, she's reading the My Friend Flicka series. It's set in America on a ranch and reading it, it's just as if you were there. Mum always reads not in an accent exactly, but in the way that you'd say it, so all the conversations sound real.

When I read by myself I think the story in my head and place myself as one of the characters. I really liked Little Women in that way. Mum read it to me first, then I read it, but I gave up. But I read all the What Katy Did series and I've read 101 Dalmatians three times. It's good when you know the story already because you get different information when you read it again.

I usually get my books at the library or from the bookshop at school, which is open every other Friday. I've read every single Arthur Ransome book now. It was the film of Swallows and Amazons that made me get the first one, and my mum and dad were really surprised when I brought home this big thick book and enjoyed it. My favourite character is Susan, the one who tells everyone what to do, what to eat and when to go to bed. At first I didn't like the girls always having to do the cooking. But then I realised that the ones left behind at the camp have adventures on their own

How to enter Our competition is for adults to write a short story for six- to nine-year-olds. It has a pounds 2,000 prize for the winner and pounds 500 each for two runners-up. You are invited to submit stories of 1,500 to 2,500 words which must arrive before 13 April at: Story of the Year Competition, PO Box 10715, London WC1A 1NA. You may enter once only, and the entry must be made by the writer, not on his or her behalf. Entries must be typewritten, double-spaced and on one side of the paper only. Stories cannot be returned, so please keep a photocopy. Stories submitted must be unpublished, but the competition is open to published writers. We will not accept stories with illustrations. The first page of the entry must consist only of your name, address and telephone number. The story should start on a separate sheet, with no name on any of the pages, so that it can be judged anonymously. The winning story will be published in The Independent in June. The top three stories and up to ten other entries will be published in the autumn by Scholastic Children's Books in a Story of the Year 4 anthology (a list of stories chosen will be published in The Independent at the same time). Any story chosen for publication in the anthology that does not win one of the top three cash prizes will receive a fee of pounds 200.

Rules This competition is not open to employees of, or relatives of employees of, Scholastic Ltd or Newspaper Publishing plc or anyone connected with the competition. Proof of posting cannot be accepted as proof of delivery. No responsibility can be accepted for entries which are delayed, damaged, mislaid or wrongly delivered. The judges' decision will be final and no correspondence can be entered into. Entry grants to Scholastic Ltd the exclusive right to publish an entrant's story in all formats throughout the world for the full legal term of copyright. A copy of the form of contract may be obtained on application to Scholastic Ltd. By submitting a story an entrant agrees to be bound by the terms of this agreement, and to sign it if called upon to do so. Any entry not submitted in the form specified will be deemed invalid. If your story is not published in the anthology or the newspaper by the end of 1996, these rights revert to you. Entry into the competition implies acceptance of these rules.