"Letters About Literature"
2004 Essay Contest Winners

The Missouri Center for the Book is pleased to announce the Missouri winners of the 2004 Letters About Literature contest, an annual competition where students write a personal letter to an author explaining how his or her work changed their view of the world or themselves.

This year, 1,235 Missouri students entered the contest. Entries were divided into three competition levels: Level I (grades four through six); Level II (grades seven and eight); and Level III (grades nine through twelve). A first place, second place, and two honorable mention winners were awarded for each of the three competition levels.

Missouri winners were honored on April 7, 2004, at the Kirkpatrick State Information Center in Jefferson City, where they received certificates and cash prizes for their efforts. First place winners will also receive a $50 Target gift card.

The Letters About Literature contest encourages young readers to explore their personal responses to books and then express those responses in a creative, original way. The Missouri Center for the Book has sponsored the contest for ten years, and in that time over 11,000 Missouri students have submitted entries. Missouri is consistently among the top states in the nation in number of entries.

Letters About Literature is presented in conjunction with the national Center for the Book in the Library of Congress, in partnership with Target Stores and the Weekly Reader Corporation.

To recognize the students’ efforts, Target ran a full-page advertisement in the April 23, 2004 edition of USA Today, listing the names and cities of each state’s first place winners. Click here to view that advertisement (930K). You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the file.

Front Row (l-r): Melanie Blunt, Katie Landolt, Laura Allgood, Haley Stroup, Sara Parker Back Row (l-r): Jamie Spencer, Brett O’Neal, Emma Wan, Kelly Riley, Phoebe Davis, Adam Shelton, Lauren Croll, Cooper Livingston, Anita Sadhu, Kathryn Rainey (Lloyd Grotjan photo)