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Winning Essays Chosen for Letters About Literature Contest Winners Honored at State Capitol
This year, the national "Letters about Literature" contest inspired more than 24,000 young writers in grades 4-12 to write essays to authors—living or deceased—explaining how the authors’ works somehow changed the students’ lives. The contest has been jointly sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and Weekly Reader Corporation for eighteen years.
In Connecticut, almost 1000 students from more than 30 Connecticut schools participated. While teachers are encouraged to promote this contest as a class project, it is not recommended that everyone read the same book, nor is the essay to be a book report: each student is to respond to a work of his or her choice and address a specific audience—the book’s author. This year’s "Letters About Literature" winners for Connecticut are: Pia Crawford-Silva about 
Jane Yolen’s The Devil's Arithmetic, King Philip Middle School, West Hartford
Second Prize:
Third Prize:
Level II (grades 9-12) First Prize: Cross Woodfield about Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon, Conard High School, West Hartford; Second Prize: Jennifer Bemis about Betty Smith’s A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Conard High School, West Hartford; Third Prize: Jessica Donnelly about Ruth Minskey Sender’s The Cage, Bethel Middle School, Bethel
Connecticut’s winners and semi-finalists, along with their families, teachers, and elected officials are invited to an awards ceremony at the State Capitol, to be held in early June. Speakers will include artist, illustrator, and author Wendell Minor of Washington, Connecticut. The three winners in each level will receive cash prizes of $100, $50, and $25, and each semi-finalist will receive a certificate of achievement from the Connecticut Center for the Book. First place prizes are provided by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress; second and third place prizes have come to us as in memoriam donations from a member of our Advisory Council.
All 24,000 Letters about Literature 2001 entries from around the nation were received and initially read in Pennsylvania by the national coordinator, Catherine Gourley, and her staff. Semi-finalists’ essays were then returned to the originating states for final judging while the very best were also forwarded to the Library of Congress for national consideration. National judges for the 18th annual contest were: Byron Hollinshead, President, American Historical Publications, New York, NY; Kathy Egawa, Associate Executive Director, National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, IL; John Micklos, Editor, READING TODAY (IRA publication), Barksdale, DE; Carol Moutray, Ph.D., Chair, Graduate Reading Program, King's College, Wilkes-Barre, PA; Suzanne Barchers, Mg. Ed.,
Weekly Reader Corporation, Stamford, CT; John Cole, Director, Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. National contest winners’ essays are on the Web site of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress: www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook. State level judges for Letters About Literature this year were:
Entry forms for the 2002 contest will become available in fall 2001 through school media specialists, Weekly Reader Corporation, and the Web sites listed above, as well as through other select venues. For information about this and other programs of the Connecticut Center for the Book, please call 860.543.8656.
# # # Letters about Literature 2001 Winners* and Semi-finalists: Towns and studentsLevel I (grades 4-8)East Hartford Nicholas Miller East Lyme Elizabeth Foley Farmington
Glastonbury Michelle Garcia Manchester
Salem Lindsay Wengloski South Windsor Bridget Sarpu Trumbull C.J. Metz West Hartford
Level II (grades 9-12) Bethel
Bolton
East Lyme
Farmington
West Hartford
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Kelsey LeBuffe about Ann
Rinaldi’s Hang a Thousand Trees with Ribbons, King Philip Middle School, West
Hartford 
Carolyn Bernier
about Julie Reece Deaver’s Say Goodnight, Gracie, Irving Robbins Middle
School, Farmington
