LEWISTON – Maine PBS, which airs the award-winning series, “Reading Rainbow,” is participating in the eighth annual “Young Writers and Illustrators Contest.”

The national contest is open to students in kindergarten through third grade and asks them to write and illustrate their own stories. Stories can be fiction or nonfiction, and illustrations should attempt to complement and enhance the text.

Entries will be judged separately by grade level and must be received by Maine PBS by Friday, March 22, 2002.

Each child who submits an entry will receive a certificate of achievement signed by Reading Rainbow host, LeVar Burton. Maine PBS will award prizes to the first, second and honorable mention winners in each grade. In addition, first-place winning entries will be entered in the national competition, where grand-prize winners will receive a computer and printer. National second place winners will receive a VCR.