“Janet Shaw, your book has changed my life. Nobody bully's me about my heritage anymore. I'm proud of being a Micmac Indian and I will always take a stand for myself. Thank you sincerely for the cherished inspiration that you've given me,” said Dana Vigue’s letter to the “Meet Kaya” author.
Maggie Tighe wrote to Aldous Huxley, “With ‘Brave New World,’ you have shown me that my circle of friends, my community, and my world require the personal sacrifice of time and energy to achieve meaningful happiness. Thank you for this gift.”
Sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress in association with Target, Letters About Literature invites students on three competition levels (elementary, middle school and secondary) to write a personal letter to an author explaining how his or her work somehow changed the reader’s view of the world or of himself or herself. The letters written by Hunter, Dana and Maggie were three of the six 2008 national winners. Each earned for their community or school library a $10,000 Letters About Literature Reading Promotion Grant. Twelve 2008 national honorable mention winners were also awarded a $1,000 grant for the community or school library of their choice.