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April 20, 1999
Contact: Yvonne French (202) 707-9191
Center for the Book and Weekly Reader
Corporation Announce "Letters About Literature"
Essay Contest Winners
A Pennsylvania girl and a budding New York
folksinger won the "Letters About Literature"
essay contest, the Center for the Book and
Weekly Reader Corporation announced today. They
competed with 20,000 students nationwide in the
reading-writing contest. The students' essays
were read by 100 judges across the country.
"Letters About Literature" invites students to
write a personal letter to an author -- living or
dead -- explaining how the author's work changed
their lives.
Kelly McAnerney, a seventh-grade student at
Seneca Valley Middle School in Harmony, Pa., won
the national prize from grades 4-7 for her
letter to Jerry Spinelli, author of the humorous
young-adult novel Crash. Penn, a misfit
character in the novel, helped Kelly see the
maliciousness of the teasing and bullying that
goes on in her school. She wrote Spinelli,
"Crash pushed me into doing what I'd often
denied my conscience: being nice. Your novel
handed me a new pair of sneakers to walk life's
roads, and they fit wonderfully."
Bradley Farberman, an eighth-grade student at
Woodmere Middle School in Hewlett, N.Y., won the
national prize from grades 8-12 for his letter
to Woody Guthrie about Guthrie's autobiography,
Bound for Glory. The book inspired Bradley, who
like Guthrie, writes songs and plays a guitar.
After reading Bound for Glory, Bradley made a
commitment to himself to "speak his mind and to
talk real loud" about hope and beauty. He said
he would like to travel across the country, as
Woody Guthrie did, singing songs about everyday
Americans.
"Books give young people wings," said Cathy
Gourley, director of the national program,
"wings to cope with peer pressure and parental
divorce, wings to rise above prejudice and
discover a pride in cultural and racial
heritage. These were just some of the themes
students explore in their letters this year."
The contest has been held since 1982.
State-level winners were also selected by 26
participating state Center for the Book
affiliates. A state-by-state list of winners
follows. For further information call Weekly
Reader at (203) 705-3500.
FIRST PLACE WINNERS AWARDED BY PARTICIPATING
STATE CENTER FOR THE BOOK AFFILIATES
- Alaska
- Level I (grades 4-7): Linnea Johansen, grade 6,
Pearl Creek Elementary, Fairbanks, letter to
Gloria Whelan, Hannah
- Level II (grades 8-12): Rachel Bennett, grade
12, A.J. Dimond High School, Anchorage, letter
to Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
- Arizona
- Level I: Sam Watters, grade 5, Kyrene de la
Esperanza School, Phoenix, letter to Stephen
Crane, The Red Badge of Courage
- Level II: Rebecca Doell, grade 12, Chaparral
High School, Scottsdale, letter to Ernest
Gaines, A Lesson Before Dying
- California
- Level I: Dallas Woodburn, grade 6, Cabrillo
Middle School, Ventura, letter to Anne Frank,
The Diary of a Young Girl
- Level II: Ash Hill, grade 8, Clifford School,
Redwood City, letter to Elizabeth Montgomery,
Anne of Green Gables
- Colorado
- Level I: Rachel Winter, grade 7, Zion Lutheran
School, Brighton, letter to Deborah Savage, To
Race A Dream
- Level II: Christine Ridge, grade 11, Arapahoe
High School, Littleton, letter to A.A. Milne,
House at Pooh Corner
- Connecticut
- Level I: Erin McCarthy, grade 5, Branchville
Elementary School, Ridgefield, letter to Eloise
McGraw, The Moorchild
- Level II: Brenda Addison, Ella T. Grasso
Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical
School, Groton, letter to the anonymous author
of Go Ask Alice
- Florida
- Level I: MacKennon Shehee, grade 6, Creative
Learning Center, Pensacola, letter to Colonel
McKinnon, The History of Walton County
- Level II: Emily Goldman, grade 10, Lake Mary
High School, Lake Mary, letter to Dr. Seuss, Oh,
The Places You'll Go
- Illinois
- Level I: Ann Wooton, grade 7, Emerson School,
Oak Park, letter ot Anne Frank, The Diary of
Anne Frank
- Level II: Ericka Wills, grade 10, Ridgeview High
School, Colfax, letter to Richard Wright, Native
Son
- Kansas
- Level I: Danielle Sunberg, grade 6, Pembroke
Hill School, Leawood, letter to Vicki Grove, The
Crystal Garden
- Level II: Betheny Pittman, grade 10, Maize High
School, Wichita, letter to Steven Cosgrove and
Robin James, the Serendipity series
- Louisiana
- Level I: Michael Hart, grade 7, Episcopal Day
School, Lake Charles, letter to J.D. Salinger,
The Catcher in the Rye
- Level II: Stacy Nelson, grade 9, C.E. Byrd High
School, Shreveport, letter to James Hurst, "The
Scarlet Ibis"
- Maryland
- Level I: Kevin Fallon, grade 6, Plum Point
Middle School, Huntingtown, letter to Emily
Cheney Neville, It's Like This, Cat
- Level II: Marcus Wang, grade 11, Gilman School,
Baltimore, letter to Jackie Chan, I Am Jackie
Chan
- Minnesota
- Level I: Nellene Benhardus, grade 7, St. Anthony
Middle School, St. Anthony, letter to Katherine
Paterson, Bridge to Terabithia
- Level II: Emilia Allen, grade 9, Southview
Middle School, Edina, letter to Aldous Huxley,
Brave New World
- Missouri
- Level I: Logan Skelly, grade 5, Cecil Floyd
Elementary, Joplin, letter to Janell Cannon,
Stellaluna
- Level II: Sara Luebbering, grade 9, Simonsen 9th
Grade Center, Jefferson City, letter to Lurlene
McDaniel, Don't Die, My Love
- Nebraska
- Level I: Kris Wright-Peterson, grade 7, Irving
Middle School, Lincoln, letter to Willa Cather,
O Pioneers!
- Level II: Jamie Hamburg, grade 10, Burke High
School, Omaha, letter to Jon Krakauer, Into Thin
Air
- Nevada
- Level I: Jeremee Peters, grade 7, The Meadows
School, Las Vegas, letter to John Hersey,
Hiroshima
- Level II: Aurora Patridge, grade 10, Edward C.
Reed High School, Sparks, letter to J.D.
Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
- New Mexico
- Level I: Leticia Valencia, grade 7, Lynn Middle
School, Las Cruces, letter to Ann Turner,
Nettie's Trip South and Philip Hernandez, grade
4, Dona Ana Elementary, Las Cruces, letter to
Richard Atwater, Mr. Popper's Penquins
- Level II: Nora Geiss, grade 12, Santa Fe
Preparatory, Santa Fe, letter to James Baldwin,
Sonny's Blues
- North Carolina
- Level I: Rebecca Neer, grade 5, McGee's
Crossroads Elementary School, Willow Springs,
letter to Katherine Paterson, Bridge to
Terabithia
- Level II: Jaroah Carter, grade 12, Beddingfield
High School, Wilson, letter to Nikki Giovanni,
The Collected Poems of Nikki Giovanni
- North Dakota
- Level I: Jacquelyn Bartz, Bismarck, letter to
Jerry Spinelli, Maniac Magee
- Level II: No winner selected this year
- Ohio
- Level I: Tim Chai, grade 5, Birchwood School,
Cleveland, letter to Gary Paulsen, Hatchet
- Level II: Natalia Moese, grade 8, Lakota Ridge
Junior High School, West Chester, letter to Matt
Christopher, The Winning Stroke
- Oklahoma
- Level I: Kristen Dodson, grade 5, Spiro Upper
Elementary School, Spiro, letter to Bill
Wallace, The Christmas Spurs
- Level II: Jeremy Oleson, grade 8, Kerr Junior
High School, Del City, letter to Chieko Akiyama,
Faithful Elephants
- Oregon
- Level I: Jessica Fox, grade 7, Whitford Middle
School, Portland, letter to Lois Lowry, The
Giver
- Level II: Trevor Ducker, grade 12, School,
Cottage Grove, letter to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,
A Study in Scarlet
- Tennessee
- Level I: Virginia Batts, grade 4, Ensworth
School, Nashville, letter to Marguerite Henry,
Stormy, Misty's Foal
- Level II: Lusine Zeytunyan, grade 12, Wayne
County High School, letter to John Steinbeck, Of
Mice and Men
- Texas
- Level I: Marc Trust, grade 7, Trautmann Middle
School, Laredo, letter to Leo Buscaglia, The
Fall of Freddie the Leaf
- Level II: Adam Bilal, grade 11, Katy High School,
Katy, letter to Katerine Anne Porter, Ship of
Fools
- Virginia
- Level I: Sarah Chase-Levenson, grade 6, Village
School, Charlottesville, letter to Emily Bronte,
Wuthering Heights
- Level II: Mitch Mathias, grade 11, Albemarle
High School, Charlottesville, letter to Maya
Angelou, "Equality"
- Washington
- Level I: Bryan Fakkema, grade 6, Oak Harbor
Middle School, letter to Lee Rodney, Hunted in
the Alaskan Wilderness
- Level II:. Jason Kim, grade 8, Einstein Middle
School, letter to Agatha Christie, And Then
There Were None
- Wisconsin
- Level I: Amanda Amodeo, grade 7, Eisenhower
Middle School, New Berlin, letter to Anna
Sewell, Black Beauty
- Level II: Gina Rosen, grade 12, Pius XI High
School, Milwaukee, letter to Anne Frank, The
Diary of a Young Girl
- Wyoming
- Level I: Lindsay Egginton, grade 7, Holy Name
School, Sheridan, letter to C.S. Lewis, The
Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
- Level II: Lacey Witowski, Jackson, letter to
C.S. Lewis, Chronicles of Narnia
The Center for the Book in the Library of
Congress was established in 1977 to stimulate
public interest in books, reading, and
libraries. Its program, which is supported
mostly by private funds, reaches into every
region of the country through a network of 36
affiliated state centers and more than 50
national educational and civic organizations.
For more information about the Center for the
Book and its activities, visit its Web site at
www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook.
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PR 99-054
4/20/99
ISSN 0731-3527
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