A schoolgirl is set to have a poem published in a book to mark the Millennium.

Emily Green, eight, of Manor Road, Wootton, near Abingdon, is to have her poem Millennium Gnome published in a new book entitled Our World 2000.

She won a certificate and her school, Wootton CE Primary, scooped a selection of books worth £200.

In the poem, Emily said she thought the Millennium Dome was a great idea and it would be nice if there was a Millennium Gnome to go with it. Children across Britain, aged between three and 12, were invited to write about or draw their vision of life in the next millennium.

The best entries have been selected to go in the anthology which will be in bookstores from next Friday.

Five per cent of the royalties from the book will be donated to Save the Children.

Emily said: "I went in for this competition because my teacher, Mrs Maureen Langston, asked me to. I was very keen and I started writing when I went home. "I got the idea for the gnome from watching Blue Peter because they went to the Dome and there was a gnome in there and I thought it would be a bit different to everyone else's poem.

"I liked seeing my poem published in a book and I want to write more poems now," she added.

Story date: Friday 15 October

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.