CHILDREN have become international authors through a four-way partnership with European students.

Sixteen youngsters are leaving Howden-le-Wear Primary School this week with copies of the book they co-wrote with ten and 11-year-olds in France, Italy and Bulgaria.

The literary link was arranged by French teacher Janine Pruvost after a placement at the school three years ago, arranged by Durham County Council's international officer, Brian Stobie.

She asked the school's year six pupils to write the last chapter of an 84-page detective story called "...And If the Sun Should Go to Jail?"

Each school contributed part of the story, which opened with the theft of paintings from a museum in the French town Amiens and ended with the capture of the culprit in Sunderland.

The book was printed in all four languages with the help of European Community funding.

Howden-le-Wear Primary School's headteacher, Val McCourt, said: "It was a wonderful thing to take away with them to remind them of their days at primary school.

"The book is unique. It has pictures from all four schools and is written in all the different languages. Working on it has made them aware of the things the countries have in common as well as the things that make them different."