Google’s Doodle to be taken over by Canadian children

For the first time in Canada, Google will cede control of its daily Doodle — the imaginative illustration that appears on the search engine’s home page — to the whims of a child.

Starting Friday, ‘Doodle 4 Google’ will pit Canadian youth from kindergarten through Grade 12 against each other in a creative battle to see who can best visually answer the statement: “If I could invent anything, I would invent …”

The winner will score a $10,000 scholarship, a $10,000 grant for his or her school and see his or her drawing on google.ca

“It’s incredibly important real estate,” said Google spokeswoman Wendy Bairos, noting the search engine’s Canadian home page sees an average 12.2 million unique visitors every day.

Entries will be divided by age and region, and evaluated in separate rounds by a panel of Googlers, a team of celebrity judges — including astronaut Chris Hadfield and basketball’s Steve Nash — and a public vote. The contest is open through Dec. 31.