by David Shannon, author/illustrator of NO, DAVID! and its sequels

For the past two weeks, we’ve showcased several of the twelve children’s books illustrators’ artistic interpretations of our global literacy campaign Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life. The works, featuring some of the most beloved characters in children’s literature, were created to help raise money for literacy nonprofits Reach Out and Read and Reading Is Fundamental via an online auction – open now. If you missed our coverage of the artwork so far, click here.

It’s our hope that the amazing artwork will inspire children all over the world — whether they see the posters hanging in their classrooms, the library, or at home –  and remind them that reading is important and shapes who we become.

We hope that these works inspire you, too! We are inviting aspiring artists age 18 and older to submit their own artistic interpretation of what it means to Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life.

To enter the contest, participants will need to illustrate their own vision of the message Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life., emphasizing the importance of reading in the lives of young people. Entries must be emailed in .jpg format to onourminds@scholastic.com by 11:59pm ET on Monday, June 6.

By Raina Telgemeier, author/illustrator of SMILE

The OOM blogging team at Scholastic will judge and post the top 10 submissions here on OOM for public voting on Wednesday, June 8. Public voting (including your vote!) will be open until 9am ET on Monday, June 13, 2011. The contest winner will have his or her artwork featured on the Read Every Day campaign site and win a deluxe set of signed posters created exclusively for Scholastic by the twelve children’s book authors and illustrators participating in the auction:

• Norman Bridwell, creator of Clifford the Big Red Dog®
• Bruce Degen, illustrator of The Magic School Bus® series
• Mary GrandPré, illustrator of the U.S. editions of the Harry Potter series
• Jeff Smith, author/illustrator of the BONE graphic novels
• David Shannon, author/illustrator of No, David! and its sequels
• Jon J Muth, author/illustrator of Zen Ties and Zen Shorts
• Mark Teague, author/illustrator of the LaRue series and illustrator of the How Do Dinosaurs . . .? series
• Stephen Savage, author/illustrator of Where’s Walrus?
• Edwin Fotheringham, illustrator of Tony Baloney
• Barbara McClintock, illustrator of fairy-tale retellings
• Sean Qualls, illustrator of Dizzy
• Raina Telgemeier, author/illustrator of Smile

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. The contest is officially open to legal residents of the U.S. age 18 and older. Void where prohibited. Read the official rules here.

If you’re like me, and it took you a year to learn to draw stick figures…just leave us a comment with some tips or suggestions for aspiring artists on ways they could interpret Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life.