´óÏó´«Ã½

Chris begins a brand new week, with a creative call to children! It's time to get writing, as 500 WORDS returns for the fourth year running!

Head Judge Richard Hammond joins Chris live in the Breakfast studio, to mark the official opening of the competition. And Blue Peter's Barney Harwood - who read a gold-winning story at last year's final - lets us know why he's back on board for 2014!

Last year's short story competition, for children aged 13 and under, attracted more than 90,000 entries. The 40 million words used provided a fascinating insight into the way British children use English today, thanks to the word-crunching wisdom of the Oxford University Press.

The rules are simple: Make up a story, and write it down, using no more than 500 words. And every single story submitted will be read by a brilliant, book-loving, army of librarians and teachers from around the UK. The Scottish Book Trust are back on board, to shortlist the Top 50; and the competition's panel of best-selling authors return to Radio 2 HQ in early May, to pick three medal winners in two categories: 9 & Under; and 10-13 years.

The Top 50 authors will all be invited to the 500 WORDS Final at the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts, on Friday 30th May, to hear the winners announced LIVE on The Chris Evans Breakfast Show! Last year's youngest finalist, Tom Capon, was just 6 years old, while the gold winners were 9 year old Roxanna Toyne from Brighton, and 13-year old Olivia Hunt from Somerset.

The gold winners take home Chris Evans' height in books (6ft 2"), while the silver medallists pick up Alex Jones' height in books (5ft 6"); and the bronze winners get to read their way through their own height in books! All six medallists get to hear their stories brought to life by celebrity readers, and last year's brilliantly inventive Top 50 spanned the globe and the ages, from pre-historic times; to the Middle Ages; the Victorian era; the trenches of World War One; and the year 3013.

Since last year's competition, one of the 500 WORDS family members - Malorie Blackman - has been appointed Children's Laureate. She returns to the competition alongside head judge Richard Hammond, and the best-selling authors Charlie Higson and Frank Cottrell-Boyce. And we're welcoming a new judge for 2014, the fantastic Francesca Simon, author of the multi-million-selling Horrid Henry series!