Texas 2017 Letters About Literature Winners!

Over 2,000 Texas students entered the Letters About Literature Contest this year. 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 next year! Submissions are due to the Library of Congress by December of 2017. 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."