The Maine Humanities Council Newsletter ~ Summer 2002 ~ p. 7
The Enduring Power of Fable
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The Maine Humanities Council Newsletter ~ Summer 2002 ~ p. 7 The Enduring Power of Fable |
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1 It's Never Too Late (cover page) 2 A Letter from the Executive Director and Donors: Thank You 3 Teachers for a New Century and Views of the East 4 and 5 The Humanities Interview — David Richards 6 The Long Life of a Monster 7 Letters About Literature 8 Faust: The Myth, The Memory, The Music (back cover)
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Winners of the Letters about Literature, 2002Last year, the organizers of the Maine Humanities Council's Letters About Literature were pleasantly surprised to have approximately 400 Maine school children enter the contest. This year, they were bowled over 765 entries! This equaled the number of participants in such populous states as Massachusetts and Florida. The premise of the contest is simple: ask students in grades 4 through 12 to write a letter to an author, living or dead, whose book has had great significance for them. Everyone who entered this year received a $1 book coupon valid in 12 bookstores statewide. Cash prizes for the winners were provided by Longfellow Books in Portland. This year, participants in Maine read 422 books by 320 authors. There were 510 entries from 35 schools in the grades 4-7 division, and the winner was Vanit Sharma, grade 6, from Lyman Moore Middle School, Portland. He wrote to Gianni Sofri, author of the biography Gandhi and India. Vanit was born in England and is now a U.S. citizen. As a result of his letter, Maine Public Radio featured him in a Charlotte Renner interview in May. In the grades 8-12 division, 255 students from 22 schools entered the contest. The winner was Leah Schrader, grade 11, from Rangeley Lakes Regional School. She wrote to Gabriel Garcia Marquez about his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. The judges were Chris Bowe, co-owner of Longfellow Books; Kate Chappell, co-owner of Tom's of Maine; Theo Kalikow, president, University of Maine at Farmington and Humanities Council board member; Joan Kelley, a retired scientist and educator; Lincoln Ladd, a retired educator and Humanities Council board member, and James McCarthy, managing editor, Brunswick Times Record. They awarded second place to Bethany Whitaker, grade 7, Biddeford Middle School, who wrote to Sharon Creech about Chasing Redbird, and Stephanie Hearn, grade 11, Kennebunk High School, who wrote to Nicholas Sparks about The Rescue. Honorable mentions went to: Katie McCarthy, Plummer/Motz School, Falmouth (Patricia McKissick, The Diary of Clotee, A Slave Girl) Letters About Literature is locally a program of the Council's Maine Center for the Book and nationally of the Library of Congress Center for the Book. 
Vanit SharmaLevel I winner excerpt Dear Gianni Sofri, Your book really made a huge impact in my life. I was able to take my worst fears and live life positively, just like Gandhi did. A while back, when I was six years old, I was criticized for who I was. Being from the same religion that Gandhi was, kids made rude comments about who I worshipped, my skin color, and the language that I spoke, which is Punjabi. People would stare at me as if I was a bloody monster about to attack them. I usually would be left out of sports activities at recess and be the last one picked for a kick ball game or any other academic sport. Then one day a child came up to me and said his mother did not want me playing with him because I was brown. Your book really helped me get through some of the worst times of my life. It helped me understand who I really am on the inside. Vanit Sharma Grade 6 Lyman Moore Middle School Portland  Leah
SchraderLevel II winner excerpt Dear Gabriel Garcia Marquez, As the water in a hot bath makes your head throb, and opens your pores to shout out what is beneath your skin, thus the world of Macondo seeped into me, inflating me to be like a waterlogged sponge, so that when squeezed it is that world that seeps out in place of what was originally there. I find myself drifting about, expecting the impossible; at the supermarket I could not buy the frozen peas on the top shelf because they appeared to be hopelessly in love with the corn next to them, and who am I to tear apart those bound by love? As you can see, the nostalgia of Macondo has brought my world to life. Suddenly nothing is impossible. The inanimate, the forgotten, and the dead have quietly crept in amongst the living, to hear the thoughts and whispers of my life and to reply with foreboding, encouragement, and foresight. Leah G. Schrader Grade 11 Rangeley Lakes Regional School Rangeley |
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© Maine Humanities Council, 2002–2008 Please contact Donna Jones at West End Webs for questions or problems with the web site. |