LAL is a national reading promotion program of the Center for the Book  

The envelope below came to us from Crum MS in West Virginia. Scroll down to the read the teacher's moving cover letter!

    "I cannot express how much the Letters About Literature program has impacted not only my classes, but also our entire school. Last year marked the first year my students partcipated in any writing contest. Being our first attempt, we did not expect to hear that we had received any awards.  But . . . parents began calling the school . . . informing us of award letters their children had received.

Excitement buzzed in the air. Once we discovered that more than nine letters had been recognized for notable mention, the school was bursting with pride! You could see the absolute joy and shock on the students' faces . . . 

The WV state award ceremony recognized each student for their incredible talents and dedication. Whether a student received notable mention or a top honor, they were all treated as dignified winners.

After already feeling as though they had won Olympic Gold, they listened to a genuine author who demonstrated that reading and writing can take them to more places than our students had ever imagined. Their ability to meet and speak with the author sparked a fire deep within them.

After all students in our state had been recognized, the WV state center called the Crum MS students to the stage and recognized our school for the amount of awards received. For myself, it was a moment of sheer pride as I watched our students, who haven't experienced very much success in the past, beaming with joy.  It brought tears to my eyes to see what a little acknowledgement can do for a writer.

The remainder of the year, they wrote like authors proud of each piece they created.

Sincerely,

Rachel Doss, 7-8 Language Arts Teacher

And now, the CRUM MS  Writers are back for a second year of LAL competition.  Good luck, CMS!

Read this great cover letter that arrived with the entries from Wshington JHS in Manitowoc, WI: 

Dear Letters About Literature,

We, the English 7 students in ms. Mary Voss's class, want to thank you for offering this project. We found it challenging. Just like Stanley in Holes,  we had to dig, dig withinour ourselves to uncover the impact that literature has had on us. This project made us think and ultimately learn something important about ourselves,

Ms. Voss's English Students

NOTE: WE WILL PUBLISH THE NAMES OF THE 2012 NATIONAL AND STATE WINNERS ON THIS SITE AFTER MAY 15. 

LAL Announces

2011 National Winners

Six Libraries Receive

$10,000 LAL Reading

Promotion Grants

    Approximately 70,000 young readers from across the country participated in this year's LAL writing contest, a reading promotion program of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, presented in partnership with Target. 

    This year’s winners come from all parts of the country and wrote to authors as diverse as Eric Hunter, author of “Into the Wild”; J.M. Barrie, author of “Peter Pan”; Sylvia Plath, author of “The Bell Jar”; and Daniel Defoe, author of “Robinson Crusoe.”  

      The top letters in each competition level for each state were chosen. Then, two National winners were chosen from each of the three competition levels: Level 1 (grades 4-6), Level 2 (grades 7-8) and Level 3 (grades 9-12). National winners each designate a favorite library that they wish to receive a $10,000 grant from Target. The students each receive a $500 Target GiftCard.

     Each national winner nominates a library in his or her community -- either a public library or a school library - to receive the LAL promotion grant.  The LAL sponsors then approves the nominations.

     "This is a powerful way for a young person to give back to their community," says Catherine Gourley, the national director of LAL.  Each library that receives an LAL Reading Prommotion Grant will also receive a plaque that names the child for whom the grant is honoring.  "Each of the winning children is a philanthropist!"

    The LAL Library Grant money may be used to materials such as books or periodicals relevant to young readers and/or to support author visits and storytelling.

    The four National Honors recipients from each competition level designate a library to receive a $1,000 Target grant; the students each receive a $50 Target GiftCard.        

     On the state level, the program is sponsored by affiliate State Centers for the Book. State and national judges include published authors, editors, publishers, librarians and teachers.

NOTE: National Winning letters are published under "winning letters" on the menu above.  The Libraries that will receive grants this year are listed under "Library Grants" on the menu.

National Winners

Level 1 (Grades 4-6):

• Taylor Mathews, 6th grade, SouthwestMiddle School,Searcy,Ark.Taylor wrote to Erin Hunter, author of “Into the Wild.”
• Maryam Salah, 6th grade,Al-HamraAcademy,Shrewsbury,Mass.Maryam wrote to Jerry Spinelli, author of “Maniac Magee.”

Level 2 (Grades 7-8):

• Christian Lusardi, 8th grade,ScottsRidgeMiddle School,Ridgefield,Mass.Christian wrote to George Selden, author of “The Cricket inTimes Square.”
• Audrey Wood, 7th grade,NorthBranchSchool,Afton,Va.Audrey wrote to J.M. Barrie, author of “Peter Pan.”

Level 3 (Grades 9-12):

• Akash Kar, 11th grade,SaratogaHigh School,Saratoga,Calif.Akash wrote to Jhumpa Lahiri, author of “The Namesake.”
• Ashli Bynum, School Name TK,Ada,Mich.Ashli wrote to Marge Piercy, author of “Barbie Doll.”

National Honors

Level 1 (Grades 4-6):

• Conrad Oberhaus, 5th grade,Lincolnshire,Ill.
• Nicholas Behrens, 6th grade,Falcon Heights,Minn.
• Tristan Tudor, 6th grade,Seeley Lake,Mont.
• Hanna Lee, 6th grade,Plano,Texas

Level 2 (Grades 7-8):

• Heather Wiggins, 8th grade,Kalamazoo,Mich.
• Solomon Polansky, 8th grade,Minnetonka,Minn.
• Janet Snow, 8th grade,Elkin,N.C.
• Abby Bateman, 7th grade,Snoqualmie,Wash.

Level 3 (Grades 9-12):

• Ashlee BeGell, 9th grade,Mesa,Ariz.
• Fabilola Urdaneta, 11th grade, KeyBiscayne,Fla.
• Daeun Kim, 11th grade,Norwood,N.J.
• Neal Digre, 11th grade,Brookings,S.D.

What We Do

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, in cooperation with affiliate state centers for the book and in partnership with Target Stores, invites readers in grades 4 through 12 to enter Letters About Literature, a national reading-writing contest.

To enter, readers write a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre--fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, contemporary or classic--explaining how that author's work changed the student's way of thinking about the world or themselves.

There are three competition levels:

• Level I for children in grades 4 through 6;
  

• Level II for grades 7 and 8, 

• Level III, grades 9 - 12. 

State winners, announced in March each year, receive cash awards. National winners, announce in late April, receive additional prizes and earn for their school or community library LAL Reading Promotion Grants valued at thousands of dollars!

LAL focuses on reader response and reflective writing. We provide free teaching materials, including lesson plans, writing samples, assessment checklists, and teacher tips--all downloadable through this site.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOPS FOR TEACHERS, LITERACY COACHES, & LIBARIANS

Interested in your school district/library hosting a professional development workshop on Reader Response and Reflective Writing? Contact LAL national project director Catherine Gourley for more information at 570-262-7320 or via email at cgourley@verizon.net

LAL supports educational standards established for reading and language arts as recommended by the International Reading Association and the National Council for the Teaching of English.

"Research has shown that making connections with authors increases a student's engagement with books and reading. In this time of tight budgets, fewer and fewer schools can afford the expense of an in-person author visit. Letters About Literature is a powerful conduit for enabling those connections, and in a way that is particularly meaningful to an individual child: a letter to an author of a favorite book."

-Newbery Honor Author, Kirby Larson

 2012 CONTEST UPDATE: May 2012

National Winners Have Been Selected!

Each participate state center for the book has now selected its LAL state winners for the 2012 competition and has begun notifying the winners.

If you have had a state winner, you can expect to hear from your state center shortly, either via Email or phone (if you provided a phone number) or snail mail.  The contact information for each state center is provided under the contact us button on the menu above.

Where are we in the judging process? 

The contest for 2012 is now over. However, we'll be back in the fall with a new look and new guidelines and entry deadline.

We have attempted to send a confirmation Email to the teacher/librarian contact on the entry form. If you did not hear from us yet with a confirmation Email, it could be for one of the following reasons:

(a) We could not read your Email or we entered your email incorrectly;

(b) Our confirmation Email was blocked by your school or library's spam system. This happens sooooo frequently!

(c) You forgot to give us your Email or submitted your letter on the wrong form or without an entry coupon! Some schools sent us class sets but used IE (individual entry coupons). If so, we are still logging those.

(d) We could not read your Email. 

 If you do not hear from us by February 7,send us an email with state and competition level via programdirector@lettersaboutliterature.org.

Guess where your envelope art is now?  Cathy delivered a huge folder of envelopes to the Library of Congress! The staff there is scanning them so that we can upload - come spring - better quality images!  Hey, is this another contest in the bud? 

Check our our gallery of envelope art on the menu button above!

Please note: LAL has a NEW Email:

programdirector@lettersaboutliterature.org

  TAKE THE LAL

WRITING CHALLENGE

What Teachers Tell Us

       "The day I asked for volunteers to read their letters aloud in class was the kind of day teachers need from time to time; it confirmed why I teach and why I love to teach language arts! I would not have traded places that day with anyone on earth, for I cannot imagine a more poignant moment than that. Thank you for sponsoring this wonderful contest!”

—Cita Smith, Tuscaloosa Academy, Tuscaloosa, AL

      There was a 'buzz' in the air when we lived out our LAL days! They were excited to share their opinions and talk to the author. . . .  I now encourage mys tudents to read books in a new light. It has enhanced my curriculum, becoming a  major part of it. LAL gave reluctant reders a purpose and anew perspective.       

Library Science Teacher from Hazleton, PA

I cannot begin to tell you how rewarding this experience is.  My class grew so much as they analzyed their lives, their hearts, and the wonderful books they have read.  I have taught over 20 years and this is my 16th year in 6th grade.  By far, this is one of the best, most meaningful things I have ever done with kids.  Just to go through the challenge of writing these letters changes lives!  I excitedly look forward to doing this as long as I am teaching in the classroom.          Sincerely, Mrs. Dale Johnson, Utah

Without the impetus of the LAL program, I probably wouldn't ask my students to reflect on the texts they read in such a personal manner. I'd prep them for their standardized testing, and be sure they could defend interpretations of literature using appropriate rhetorical strategies, and I might have a class of brilliant academic writers. What the LAL program does for my students is remind them that literature is, at its heart, an expression of the human condition, frequently an expression of things they may be feeling or have already felt.

Pat Marshall, PORTA HS, Petersburg, IL

 But what is reflective writing

and how do you do it?

Reflective writing is when an individual looks back at a past experience or period of time and thinks about the meaning and significance of that experience or time. Reflection is personal. It is insightful.

Think of a mirror.  When you look into a mirror, what do you see?  Not just your own image but also the space around you and behind you.  That's kind of what you do when you write a reflective letter to an author. The author's work - the book - is the mirror. The letter you write should capture the image in the mirror - a little bit about yourself and your world, how you saw yourself reflected in the book.

Here's the really interesting thing--no two readers quite see the same reflection in an author's work!

Reflective writing is not a fan letter or a how-to-do process report.  It is not a persuasive argument nor is it a literary analysis.  Rather, reflective writing is personal.  It is insightful.  It is an expression of memories or  emotions or your ideas. The author's work is the doorway (or perhaps the mirror) that allows the reader to discover these things about himself or herself. 

STEP #1 IN THE REFLECTIVE WRITING PROCESS IS TALKING, not so much about what happened within the pages of the book but rather what happened inside each reader's head. The reader/writer has to think critically, to monitor personal reactions and thoughts and then express those ideas and feelings in a thoughtful and creative way.

Samples of reflective writing in the letters we received for last year's competition are presented below. But first, a word of caution from an LAL teacher in New York, Theresa Donohue, Commack MS: 

"Before you read these letters try to remember when you were an 8th grade student. You were young, innocent, moody, self-absorbed, and on the brink of your teenage years. The wonderful children I have the pleasure of spending most of my days with are precisely at this point. I love my job and my students. Many  worked diligently on these letters. They may not be award-winning letters, but my students are proud of what they wrote, and I am very  proud of each of them."

Theresa, we, too, are proud of the almost 70,000 young readers who sent us letters last year. We especially love their honesty and willingness to share their personal stories and thoughts with us!

 YOU MADE US SMILE!

• I would rather wash dishes than read a book outside of school.  . . . When I read Tiger, the first book in The Five Ancestors Series, I suddenly got a knack for reading.  

• Hello. My name is Jared. You made me who I am today. Prepare to be praised. (to the author of The Princess Bride, William Goldman)  

• When I first read Eragon, I thought to myself, “Wow, this guy must have been writing forever to be this good!”

• Sometimes things happen in the world that make me think "What would George Orwell say about this?" 

• I didn’t see the end coming because I didn’t check how many pages I had left.

• The future has always been a blur to me.

• Most people meet new friends outside. All you meet if you stay inside all day is a pair of glasses.

• When I read this book, I surprised myself by using a lot more parts of my brain than I usually do.

SOMETIMES (to be honest) YOU CONFUSED US!

• Through a combination of contrasting parental influences, early maturation, and a curious mind, I found myself being thrown into a hurricane of confusion and on a desperate search for stability as I approach my double digits.

BUT MOSTLY . . . YOU WOWED US  your willingness to share your ideas and feelings!

• Skin.  It’s the first thing people use to evaluate you in this world. What I saw in the mirror made me wonder . . . Do people treat me a certain way because of my skin color? What causes people to look at me in a strange manner? Am I different in some manner not explained? Or is it me? Just like Maleeka, I, too, questioned why my skin was the way it was. When I started reading your story, I really didn’t want to read it, because I knew Maleeka, in a way, was me. I didn’t want to read something that reminded me of myself.  8th grade student at St. Angela School, Chicago, IL, to Sharon  Flake, author of The Skin I'm In 

• I’ve been having problems like Shug with my best friend. She just seems like she’s growing up and I’m not. I like being a kid like Shug. to Jenny Han, author of Shug, from a letter written by Kate, Washington JHS, Naperville, IL

• I was baptized Roman Catholic. I do not believe animals rise to heaven or descend. I will never truly see my dog again, but through your novel, Cynthia, you have brought her back. Through the experiences in your book, treasured memories I had banished from my mind have arisen again. I welcome these now.  Ryan from Naperville, IL, to Cynthia Kadohata, author of Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam 

• I’m an earth freak. I yell when people throw away paper. I tear up when I see things about sea animals getting killed by pollution and careless boaters. I cringe when I see forests being torn down so more buildings can be built; like there already aren’t enough. Sometimes I get teased about being so sensitive when it comes to being ‘green’ by the kids at school. My release at first was just to tell myself that they’re just cold-hearted and that I was the better person. But sometimes it was hard to convince myself of this.  to Carl Hiaasen, author of Hoot, from 12-year-old Val

• My personality doesn’t match Lily’s, but my heart does. I am a junior high school Christian girl. It sometimes seems to be me that no one else is as close to religion as I am. I have lots of friends who go to church, but hardly any of them go EVERY Sunday. I also, like Lily, journal about the Bible. None of my friends do that. It was a relief for me to know that what I did wasn’t just something crazy and weird. Once I realized how close Lily and I were, I started making other connections between us.  To Nancy Rue, author of the Lily series, written by 7th grader Julia

Do you want to read more? Please click on the Winning Letters tab on the menu above!