Cover art by seventeen year old Hannah England from Mechanicsville, Virginia, was chosen for Journey to the Homeland, the novel by sixteen year old Hannah Stahlhut of Danville, Indiana. These young ladies are the winners in the first annual Tweener Time International Chapter Book and Cover Art competition.   Second place winner: Brie Jenkins from Pittsburg, Missouri Third place winner: Beth Dellinger from Blacksburg, Virginia You can now place your order for the Championship Series! First book, Journey to the Homeland, will be released March 15th. Books two through six will be released every two months. ALL books will have cover art by high school artists!   Order the CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES at our bookstore now and save $ $! It's Tweener Time !   We believe it's TIME for TWEENERS to have books created especially for them. We are inviting high school teenagers to create the cover illustration for Journey to the Homeland, the 1st Place Winner in the Tweener Time Writing Competition.  Why high school students? Why not? We believe if a book written by a high school student merits publication, then there must be a high school artist qualified to do the cover.    1.  Teenagers are the people tweeners want to emulate the most.    2.  They know better what book covers catch the interest of tweeners         since they were recently tweeners themselves.    3.  They are trailblazers for tweeners. Teenagers can demonstrate          that hard work and creativity can be rewarded. What will they be illustrating?    1.  Journey to the Homeland, by 16 year old Hannah Stahlhut, is the adventure         of a young boy who can communicate with animals and a young girl who is kidnapped         because strangers thought she was the ‘gifted’ child.   2.  By October 22 a summary of each chapter and character and scene descriptions        will be posted here. We’re looking for the artist who can capture in graphic form this fast-paced, action-packed adventure.  Remember your design must invite the young reader to want to read this chapter book.   Send us your best illustration/design for this award winning book   AWARDS:   First Place Winner:  Anderson University in  Anderson, Indiana, is offering a $44,000 scholarship ($11,000 each year for 4 years). Scholarship Guidelines: Students who participate in the annual Tweener Ministries Cover Design Competition must do so in accordance with Tweener Ministries Competition guidelines. Award winners will be determined based upon the official results from the judges of the Tweener Ministries Cover Design Competition. Recipients must apply, be accepted, and enroll as a full-time student at Anderson University  to receive the scholarship. Recipients must keep the scholarship letter and present it to student financial services upon enrollment at Anderson University to activate the scholarship. The award will be credited toward the recipient’s Anderson University tuition, is not transferable, and is bound by the Anderson University award policies in place at the time of enrollment. The award is renewable each year based upon earning a 3.0 GPA, the standard for academic scholarships.  Baker Trittin Press will publish the winning manuscript, Journey to the Homeland, by Hannah Stahlhut with the cover illustration created by the winner of this competition.    Second and Third Place Winners: Bethel College is offering a $10,000 scholarship, ($2,500 each year for 4 years) Scholarship Guidelines: Students must participate in the Tweener Ministries Chapter Book Writing and/or Cover Design annual contest in accordance with Tweener Ministries Chapter Book Writing guidelines. Award winners will be determined based upon the official results from the director of the Tweener Ministries Chapter Book Writing competition recognized annually. Recipients must keep the award certificate and present it to student financial services upon enrollment at Bethel College to qualify.  If the award certificate is lost, the scholarship will not be awarded. Recipients must apply, be accepted and enroll as a full-time student at Bethel College to receive the award. The award will be credited toward the recipient’s Bethel College tuition, is not transferable; and is bound by the Bethel College award policies in place at the time of enrollment. The award is renewable based upon the GPA established by the college to determine satisfactory academic progress. JUDGING: There will be three rounds of judging. Round One: the judges are teachers, artists, and school administrators. Round Two: the judges are art directors and college professors. Round Three: a jury comprised of representatives from Anderson University art faculty, Baker Trittin Press, i-design, and Tweener Ministries will select the winners.   Illustrations sent to the judges have NO indication of name, age, gender, or place of residence.   ALL DECISIONS OF THE JUDGES ARE FINAL!   Entering the Competition is a two step process.   1.  Email info@tweenerministries.org for a synopsis of  the book and the application form.      You are invited to enter the realm of professional illustrators which includes assuring privacy of the book. 2.  Submission of your illustration and the twenty-five dollar ($25.00 US) entrance fee by the January 10, 2008 deadline.   What every artist wants to know: FYI:  The lay-out and design is the publisher's responsibility. You will be creating the illustration for the cover. The medalion at the top of this page will be located at the top of the book. The art credit will be located on the copyright page. Your short bio will be placed on the back cover.   FAQ and our answers: 1.  What are the proportions for the illustration?      The illustration should be square (at any size) and will be reduced to a final dimension of 5x5. 2.  Is the title part of the illustration? NO 3.  Is the author's name a part of the illustration? NO 4.  Will the color for the title and author's name affect the colors I use in my illustration?      Your colors will determine all other colors on the cover except for the medalion. 5.  What kind of surface is acceptable for my entry?      The entry will be sent as a jpeg. The winner will be requested to send the original artwork in its original format. 6.  What media do I need to use?       Any medium can work: pastels, oils, watercolors, coloring pencils, collage, textile,or printmaking. Do what you do best!       If you have other questions, please include them when you email for the synopsis. Cover Guidelines by Terry Julien, president of i-design   A book cover has many objectives, but one of its main purposes is to grab attention, to create curiosity. The image should make the reader want to find out more about the story: What's taking place? How did the characters get to this point? Where is it going from here?   In most cases, people are more interesting than objects or landscapes. In most cases, realism is more appropriate than other styles. And in most cases, strong color is preferable to subtle colors or black and white. But take a look through a bookstore, and you'll see that all these guidelines can be broken very effectively.   Make sure you have a strong focal point. There will be several elements on the cover: the title, the author's name, the competition logo. Don't let your illustration get too busy with lots of little details, or everything will get lost. One element in the illustration needs to be strong enough to draw the reader's attention over everything else.   Make the illustration eye-catching and unusual. Here are a few different ways of doing this:   Perspective: We see the world around us at eye-level, so try a different perspective. Sometimes it’s good to show the scene from a bird's eye view, or from a bug's eye view.   Lighting: Make sure that you have a clearly defined light source. You could try something more dramatic: soft candle-light; or light coming up from below; or a spotlight shining straight down from above.   Strong emotional content: Define the one main emotion of the scene, put a word to it. Is it fear, sadness, curiosity, terror, or anger? Once you have defined the emotion, determine how to show that emotion in your cover, not just in the character's expression, but through composition, color palette and stylization. (Just a hint: negative emotions are easier to represent, and usually create a greater sense of curiosity, than positive emotions like joy, hope, happiness, contentment).   Be purposeful!  A weakness in many students' work is a tentative style that falls halfway between realism and cartoon. If the cover is to be realistic, then get a digital camera, pose your friends, shoot references. Use tracing paper or an opaque projector to get all the proportions exact. If the cover is a cartoon, exaggerate the stylization. Whatever direction you take, push it all the way. Don't be timid.   Focus on your strengths. If you're great at graffiti art, don't try to do a realistic cover; create something very spontaneous and edgy. If you're great at still-life, don't try to do people; find an intriguing composition of objects that communicates something in the story. If you're great with pastel, don't try to work in watercolors.   Any medium can work: pastels, oils, watercolors, coloring pencils, collage, textile, or printmaking. Do what you do best!