How NOT to scare Derek Landy!

This October, young people aged 15 and under were asked to write a 250 word spooky tale based on the spooky theme of this year's Children's Book Festival poster (as designed by the Cartoon Saloon's Tomm Moore). Over 1500 entries were sent in to CBI from across the country, from which a shortlist of the 10 scariest, most original and well written stories was selected by the king of Skulduggary himself, Derek Landy.

The judges all commented on the exceptionally high quality of the entries received - it was obvious that an awful lot of hard work and imagination had been put in by everyone who took part and making a final decision was by no means an easy task. 

The top-prize for this competition is €1,000 worth of books for the winner's school or local library, with a signed-copy of Skulduggary Pleasant: Playing With Fire going to all 10 shortlisted entrants.

The overall winner is listed below along with the 9 runners-up. To read each fantastic story in full simply click on the relevant title - but be warned, some of these tales are not for the feint hearted!

Without further delay, then, we are delighted to announce that the winners of the 2008 CBF Spooky Story Competition are as follows:

Winner:

Runners-up:

Congratulations to Beth and all the runners-up - who knows, we may even have a future Derek Landy amongst them?