Nebraska students competed for the twenty-fifth year in the annual Letters About Literature competition. They wrote to tell an author about how books can make a difference in a young person’s life. Young Nebraska writers who wrote winning letters in the Letters About Literature competition will attend a proclamation signing ceremony on April 11th with Gov. Jim Pillen. Letters About Literature is a state-wide reading and writing promotion program. The competition encourages young people to read, be inspired, and write back to the author (living or dead) who had an impact on their lives.
This annual contest is coordinated and sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book, Nebraska Library Commission, Lincoln City Libraries, Humanities Nebraska, Connie Osborne, Francie & Finch Bookshop of Lincoln, and Chapters Bookstore in Seward.
Young Nebraska writers to be honored are:
Level I (Grades 4-6):
Winner is Brooklyn Green of Lincoln’s Irving Middle School, who wrote to S.E. Hinton about their book, The Outsiders.
Runner-up is Justin Kang-Shizuka of Lincoln’s Prescott Elementary, who wrote to George Takei about their book, They Called Us Enemy.
Level II (Grades 7-8):
Winner is Henry Skretta of Lincoln’s Irving Middle School who wrote to Neal Shusterman about their book, Scythe.
Runner-up is Liam Brown Kramer of Lincoln’s Irving Middle School who wrote to Robert Louis Stevenson about their book, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
Level III (Grades 9-12):
Winner is Chloe Kasischke of Wahoo Public High School, who wrote to Allison Britz about their book, Obsessed: A Memoir of My Life with OCD.
Runner-up is Aidan Blakely of Omaha North High School, who wrote to Amy Tan about their book The Joy Luck Club.
The students wrote personal letters to authors explaining how his or her work changed their view of themselves or the world. They selected authors from any genre, fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic. Winners were chosen from three competition levels: upper elementary, middle school, and high school.
The Nebraska winners will be honored at a reception at Lincoln City Library’s Bennett Martin branch and receive cash prizes and gift certificates. Their winning letters will then be placed in the Jane Pope Geske Heritage Room of Nebraska Authors at Bennett Martin Public Library in Lincoln. For more information about the competition see http://centerforthebook.nebraska.gov/programs/LAL.html
The Nebraska Center for the Book is housed at the Nebraska Library Commission and brings together the state’s readers, writers, booksellers, librarians, publishers, printers, educators, and scholars to build the community of the book, supporting programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word. The Nebraska Center for the Book is supported by the Nebraska Library Commission.
As the state library agency, the Nebraska Library Commission is an advocate for the library and information needs of all Nebraskans. The mission of the Library Commission is statewide promotion, development, and coordination of library and information services, “bringing together people and information.”