• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, March 24, 2011

General Mills' Cheerios has kicked off this year's Cheerios New Author Contest. The grand prize-winning first-time author of a children's book will win a $5,000 cash prize and possible publishing deal with Simon & Shuster Children's Publishing, as well as having his/her book distributed inside boxes of Cheerios.

Aspiring authors can submit entries, in English or Spanish, on the brand's Spoonfuls of Stories contest site through July 15. The Spoonfuls program will this year donate 100,000 new books to children in need through its charitable partner, First Book.

Since the Spoonfuls program was launched in 2002, Cheerios has given away more than 50 million children's books in its boxes and donated more than $3.5 million to First Book.

The brand also announced that a book written by 2009 New Author contest winner Laurie Isop, "How Do You Hug a Porcupine?," will be featured inside 3 million boxes of Cheerios this spring and available in bookstores nationwide starting July 26.