Letters About Literature

It wasn’t a big surprise which book drew the most attention by far in the Maine Humanities Council’s Letters About Literature contest for Maine students in grades 4 through 12 — Harry Potter inspired 25 entries among the 400 letter-writers —   but the literary winners were a much-loved Maine writer and a leading historian.

The student winners in the Maine competition were Amber Casterlin, a 4th-grader from Brunswick, who wrote to Barbara Cooney about Miss Rumphius, and Ethan Hyland, a 9th grader from Poland Spring, who wrote to Stephen Ambrose about Undaunted Courage, a history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Their entries have been forwarded to the national competition.

The contest invited students to write a short letter to an author, living or dead, explaining how that author’s book changed their way of viewing themselves and the world. Writing such a letter offered young readers an opportunity to reflect on their favorite books and think about why reading them was such an engaging experience. There were two levels: for students grades 4-7 and grades 8-12.

The two first place winners received cash awards of $100 each. The top four winners received $25 gift certificates from their local bookstore. They will join the contestants who received honorable mentions at the Portland Sea Dogs’ game on June 3 in Portland, where they will be honored on the field. Every student who entered the contest received a coupon for a quart of ice cream donated by Giffords Dairy and a ticket donated by the Sea Dogs to the June 3 game.

The Maine judges were a group of writers and book-lovers: Peter Schwindt. Kate Chappell. Anne Waldron, Neil Rolde, Sandy Phippen, and Charlie Eshbach. The contest was sponsored by the Weekly Reader Corporation and the Library of Congress, and, locally, by the Council’s Maine Center for the Book.

Eshbach, who is president and general manager of the Portland Sea Dogs, said that the book that had influenced him the most while growing up was the Big Time Baseball Book. “I found it when I was seven years old — a 25-cent copy off a newsstand — and I’m looking at it right now in my book case, 42 years later. It’s tattered and dog-eared, but it s the book that really got me interested in baseball.

“The way it was presented was perfect --- lots of short items about baseball history and famous players,” said Eshbach, the day before he left for spring training in Florida.  “It was a kid’s book, but it really piqued my interest in the game.”