Texas 2017 Letters About Literature Winners!

2018 Winners|2017 Winners|2016 Winners

Over 2,000 Texas students entered the 2016-2017 Letters About Literature Contest. Congratulations to all the winners. First through Third place winners are listed below. First place winners have advanced to national judging!

All 4th-12th graders are invited to participate! Read a book or poem and write a letter. You could be on this list! For more information about the contest, see the Letters About Literature page.

Teachers, librarians, parents, neighbors, and beyond— please share this opportunity and cultivate a love of reading. As you will read in the winners’ entries, this contest takes words off pages, creates a heart connection to story, and organically cultivates life-long readers.

Level I Grades 4-6

Placement	Winner	Letter	Hometown	Piece	Author
1^st Place	Celina Prieur	Read Celina's letter	Dallas, TX	“The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”	Mark Haddon
"Your book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time has changed me…”

2^nd Place	Haylie Stobaugh	Read Haylie's letter	Dallas, TX	“Wonder”	R.J. Palacio
"I am writing to you because your book, Wonder, has changed my life, and I…"

3^rd Place	Cash Carter	Read Cash's letter	Dallas, TX	“‘The Long Winter”	Laura Ingalls Wilder
"As I write this letter to you, I am sitting on a comfortable sofa, and I can smell…"

Level II Grades 7-8

Placement	Winner	Letter	Hometown	Piece	Author
1^st Place	Cynthia N. Onyiorah	Read Cynthia's letter	McAllen, TX	“Nineteen Minutes”	Jodi Picoult
"Just the other day I was pondering about my life and the decisions…"

2^nd Place	Archer Calder	Read Archer's letter	Cypress, TX	“Out of My Mind”	Sharon Draper
"My name is Archer Calder and I am 12 years old."

3^rd Place	Jimena I. Sotelo	Read Jimena's letter	McAllen, TX	“The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer”	Michelle Hodkin
"I know it's an atypical subject for a letter; death."

Level III Grades 9-12

Placement	Winner	Letter	Hometown	Piece	Author
1^st Place	Isabel Hu	Read Isabel's letter	League City, TX	“The Poisonwood Bible”	Barbara Kingsolver
“Throughout my entire life, I've imagined myself as a lonesome…”

2^nd Place	Colby Menefee	Read Colby's letter	Buffalo, TX	“Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church”	Lauren Drain
"This morning, I read a news article about a 13-year-old gay…”

3^rd Place	Avery Gann	Read Avery's letter	Parker, TX	"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”	J.K Rowling
"In my lifetime, the Lord has tested me in many ways."