Middle schoolers took part in the Letters About Literature Contest. The event is run by the Library of Congress. Students are asked to write a letter to an author (living or dead) about how a book changed the student’s view of themselves or of something in the world. Our fifth graders fall in Level 1 which encompasses fourth through sixth graders. For each level, finalists are chosen and then first, second, and third place winners are selected from the finalists. This year we had four finalists: Mackie Boone, Lauren Boyer, Celia Servaites, and Peyton Sullivan. Boone wrote to Dan Gemienhart about his book The Honest Truth, in which the main character is a boy dealing with cancer and she connected that to how her aunt struggled with cancer five years ago. Boyer wrote to Erin Hunter, the author of The Warriors series and explained that she talks to her mom, her sister, and even her eye doctor about the characters in the books. She wrote that reading about the different perspectives of the characters in the books has helped her be aware of the different perspectives of the people around her. Meanwhile, Latin also had a winner in Level 3. Ninth grader John Parker won third place with a letter to Mo Willems about his Elephant and Piggie books.