YOUNG bookworms were given the first choice of the latest bestsellers after designing posters to promote a book fair.

Children at Barnard Castle Prep School were asked to come up with colourful images to promote the regular book fair at the school.

Thomas Greaves, Amy Gilligan, Emma Robson, Edward Hird, Jonathan Wanless and Finlay Tait were judged to have made the best posters and were allowed to enter the book fair before their fellow pupils.

Finlay said: "I love the Wind in the Willows because I like country stories and we are currently doing a play about it."

Teacher Chris Lane said: "We stage events like these to try and encourage the children to be interested in books and reading, which are crucial to their development.

"We ran the design a poster competition for fun and to remind everyone to come to the end-of-term book fair. Reading is very popular at the moment and favourite authors keep changing. It had been J K Rowling because of Harry Potter, but a lot of the children currently like Philip Pullman for his Amber Spyglass trilogy.

"The great thing about reading is that children can do it independently or it's something they can also do with their parents."