Four Vermont school students have won from over four hundred who entered the DCF logo competition, open to grades 4-12, to put a fresh face on a revered but aging Vermont institution, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children’s Choice Award. Since the mid-seventies, the DCF logo has been a design by noted children’s book illustrator, Trina Schart Hyman. As the award approaches its fiftieth birthday, the award committee turned to the kids themselves to bring the look into the 21st century.

The winners of the competition are: First prize, Hedda Peterson, an 11^th grade student from U32 High School in East Montpelier; Second prize, Erika McCormick, a 6th grader from Newton Elementary School in Strafford; and a tie for Third prize – Elise Biette, a 5th grader from Mary Hogan Elementary School in Middlebury and Andrea Rath, an 11th grader from the Long Trail School in Dorset.

All four of the winning logo designs will be featured in a bookmark series to be distributed later this year by the Friends of DCF, Inc., the fund-raising partner to the award committee. The first prize design will become the official logo on all DCF publicity.

Since 1956, the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award, the second oldest child-selected book award in the country, has been voted on by Vermont school children in grades four through eight who read throughout the year from a master list of thirty new books – fiction, non-fiction and poetry. The 2004 winner was Jerry Spinelli for his novel Loser.

The winning author is invited to receive the award and speak at a ceremony attended by a representative group of the voting students. Actually seeing and hearing the winning author deepens the children’s involvement in the program and in the books themselves.

Those interested in knowing more about the award can find information and interesting children’s literature links on the DCF website, www.dcfaward.org.