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Pens at the ready!

Calling all adults! Sharpen those pencils or tickle your typewriter, this is your chance to have a go at writing a super short story for children. Simply choose one or more characters from Max and Lara's Amazing Travelling Space Circus and see if they can inspire you to write the winning story!

To get you started, let's find out which stories the team at Radio Derby love and why?

´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Derby's Favourite Stories

It's either "The Twits" or "The Enormous Crocodile" by Roald Dahl.Ìý They're really grizzly! Ha ha ha!
LAURENCE, REPORTER

Let me nominate Oscar Wilde's The Happy Prince. It's one of the tales he wrote for his own children, and it's every bit as witty as you'd expect, but its story of a selfless statue of a prince still reliably makes me cry.ÌýI'm surprised no-one seems to have made an animation of it - it's all very filmic. Maybe I should lobby Pixar? I buy up the little paperback versions of it when I see them and randomly send it to people when I think a good fairy tale would do 'em good. It's ageless Oscar - and ought to win one.Ìý
JAN ROGERS, PRODUCER, SUNDAY BREAKFAST

For me - Winnie The Pooh wins every time.Ìý By far the best is Winnie The Pooh and the blustery day and now whenever the wind gets up and I meet a talking bear, piglet and donkey, my mind always goes back to that book.Ìý Must change the dose of my medication!....
SHANE O'CONNOR, BREAKFAST SHOW PRESENTER

Scene from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Narnia adaptation

Any of the Narnia stories - I was very disappointed that I couldn't get through the back of my wardrobe - it wasn't for want of trying. They were magical, escapist, scary and made you want to be part of that world - so if you were a bit down, or having a bad day at school you could escape in your head to that world.
SANDRA CHAMBERS, PRODUCER, AFTERNOONS WITH ALEX TRELINSKI

'Where the Wild Things Are'. I had that story read to me when I was a child and still take great pleasure in reading that to my nieces and nephews… Love the artwork in the book, as well as the hedonistic lifestyle of the wild things…whom Max, the hero, goes on an adventure to meet. And my dad is called Max, so I sort of always imagined it as the story was about him when he was younger!
ED GEORGE, SATURDAY LUNCHTIME PRESENTER

Competition Time

If you fancy writing your own short story that could become someone's all time favourite, why not take part in ´óÏó´«Ã½ RaW's story-telling competition.

Using one or more characters from Max and Lara's Amazing Travelling Space Circus, write a story that can be told in just one or two minutes.

Closing date is 31 January 2008 and you could win Family Cinema Tickets for the whole year and the chance to get your story printed in a special ´óÏó´«Ã½ book. There will be three winners from the East Midlands.

You must be over 18 to enter this competition.

Send your stories and pictures to:-
Raw Story Competition, BS, Freepost NWW3540A, Manchester, M1 9GW

OR EMAIL your story to rawstory@bbc.co.uk

Alternatively go to the link below to fill in the online form.