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

Do you send the letters to the authors?

That is one of the most frequently asked questions we receive. With so many entries, we just don't have the staff or the budget to connect all of our young readers with the authors to whom they read. However, while we do not always forward the letters, the authors learn about the LAL winners in a variety of other ways--through the state centers, through press releases, and blogs. 

On this page, we feature some of the author responses to the letters our LAL kids have written. We'll update this page periodically.  Enjoy!

Olivia Marcantonio (pictured above) took first place on Level 1 in Virginia for her letter to Jerry Spinelli. In that letter, she thanked Jerry for writing Stargirl. She wrote:

Mr. Spinelli, you taught me how to be normal without changing, to change my image while the way I think stays the same, to be myself without hurting others. Thank you. 

Jerry Spinelli wrote a personal note to Olivia, responding to her letter. We have reprinted that note below.

 No, Olivia, thank you.

Thank you for being the dream reader we writers all wish for--someone who takes from the story not only what we put in, but maybe even a little more.

Thank you for making a story part of your life, and thereby affirming something the poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote: "The world is not made of atoms, but of stories."

And thank you for confirming my own belief that a book is only half-done until someone picks it up and reads it. So you'll understand if I think of you as my co-author.

Best wishes from Stargirl and me,

Jerry Spinelli

In September, Claire Wang, who was Maryland's Level 2 winner in the 2009 competition, had the unique opportunity of reading her letter at the National Book Festival. Sitting on stage with Claire was the author to whom she had written, Katherine Paterson. Claire's emotional letter touched Katherine quite deeply. To VIEW Katherine's response to Claire, please click on the link below. 

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Video: Katherine Paterson's Response

 From author Kirby Larson, about a letter by a 4th grader named Eleanore. Eleanore wrote about Larson's book Hattie Big Sky.

I do not deserve all the many gifts life has given me, but I do treasure them all. And I am especially grateful for the words of one Eleanore Hamilton, 4th grader, who received an honorable mention in the Letters About Literature contest for a letter she wrote to yours truly. Out of 70,000 entries, Eleanore's shone bright.

Look at how she started it: "Dear Kirby Larson, I love how Hattie Big Sky has a "bumpy" life."

I wrote the darn book and I couldn't have come up with a better way to sum up Hattie's life than "bumpy." Not only does Eleanore's writing make me the eensiest bit jealous, she's a true adventurer: like Hattie, she set her curls with sugar water, and heated up water on her stove for a bath (for the record, it took Eleanore an hour and 8 pots of water to fill the tub 1/16th of the way up).

Eleanore wraps her letter by sharing a personal experience that is very similar to Hattie's at the end of the book. I had been reading the letter aloud to my husband but couldn't continue when I got to these words: "You see, my family just built a house and thought we were going to stay here forever. We had dreams for it, but we had to sell it and we're moving out in three days. Like Hattie, I will not throw a tantrum when I leave because leaving is just another bump."

Eleanore writes in her bio that she wants to be an astronaut when she grows up because "there's so much to discover in space."

Don't you just know that, no matter what Eleanore does, she will soar?

With a spirit like hers, there is no other option.

Kirby's blog can be found at http://kirbyslane.blogspot.com/2010/08/wordy-wednesday.html