Back in October 2008, Film Street and Kudlian Software teamed up with CBBC's Ed Petrie to invite children under 12, primary schools and after school groups from across the UK, to make animated trailers to promote their favourite books.

The pupils from Maisondieu decided to adapt "The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips" by Michael Morpurgo, and impressed the judges with their efforts.

"This entry was very well animated, with superb attention to detail," the judges said.

"It was engaging, intriguing and informative - all the qualities needed for a great trailer!"

A great selection of prizes were given to the school in recognition of the youngsters' achievement, as they saw off heavy competition from right across the UK to come out on top.

The pupils themselves explained: "We are primary sevens from Maisondieu Primary School and we recently got exciting news that we had won Film Street's competition "Animate it '09 - To Cut a Long Story Short". There were around 140 schools in the age eight to 12 category and so we were shocked that we had come first!

"For the competition we had to make a trailer for a favourite book that had not already been made into a film.

"Our class chose to promote "The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips" by Michael Morpurgo, because we had studied that book anyway for our World War II project and we really enjoyed it.

"The first thing we did was have a big meeting to discuss what characters and scenes we wanted to include in the trailer.

"We then decided who was doing what, got into groups and started to work on making our characters (from plasticine) and our backdrops, props and scenery.

"In pairs, we made a storyboard which came in handy when it came to editing and putting in the voice-over later.

"Meanwhile, we had some practice in persuasive writing and we all had a go a writing the voice-over for our trailer. Two of the best ones were chosen and these children combined their ideas to make the final script.

"We split into trios and all took turns to do some animating. That was great fun! Three of us became the editing team and that was when we added the voice-over, music and sound effects.

"We were in a rush at the end but we got it put on to DVD and, at the last minute, posted it so that it would arrive at Film Street by the last day of term. We just made it.

"Twenty-five days later our teacher received a telephone call form Film Street to say that we had won. We couldn't believe it! We were thrilled with the news and excited about the prizes we had won.

"Our film is going to appear on the Film Street and Kudlian websites and Kudlian Software are going to send us five user licences "I Can Animate", five webcams, five table top tripods, five Stikfas movable figures and five animation chroma key screens.

"We can't wait for our prizes to arrive."

More good news for local schools came with the revelation that an entry made by primary five pupils from Edzell Primary School secured one of the two runner-up places in same category for their adaptation of "Lost in the Storm" by Holly Webb.

The judges said of Edzell's effort: "This trailer did a good job of building tension and anticipation and the special effects were great!"

To watch the both of the local youngsters' trailers log on to www.filmstreet.co.uk/article.aspa?PageId=836.