Zionsville Winners!

Is there an author that has changed your view on the world or changed you? What would you say to them if you were to write them a letter? 

Seventy Indiana students recently won awards for the letters they wrote to such an author through the Letters About Literature program sponsored by the Center for the Book and Target. The Indiana Center for the Book through the Indiana State Library and Target administer the program and the awards. Among the sixteen Indiana finalists are five Zionsville students! Let's here it for our young people!

In the Level One division for 4-6th graders, Rachel Stemme won second place for her letter to Sally Nichols, author of Ways to Live Forever (a book I enjoyed). Beki Slaughter and Annie Hockel both received honorable mention for their letters to Ellen Hopkins and Tom Burpo respectively. For the Level Two division, Dominic Rossi won first place and Nick Luker third. Dominic wrote to Walter Isaacson for his book Steve Jobs and Nick to Carl Deuker for his teen title, Gym Candy. Congratulations to you all!! Check out the Indiana State Library news release for more information! 

Going state and nationwide, Paw Soe from Fort Wayne, Indiana was a National Honor Recipient in the high school, or Level Three, division. She wrote to Cynthia Kadahota who wrote Kira, Kira.

You can learn more about this contest here and other state's winners here. Next year's program starts in August of this year. So ... get busy reading this summer, and maybe you'll find material to write your own winning entry this fall! 

In fact, attention tweens: we've created a whole new section at the library just for YOU. We've pulled books out of our JFIC section that are a more challenging reading level or are about things more appropriate for your age, and we've put a tween sticker on them to make them easy to find. They're shelved at the beginning of the JFIC section on the first floor; feel free to ask a librarian, and we would be happy to show you. Browse through and let us know what you think.