North’s Letters About Literature winners

This year, English 2 Honors student, Anna Berger, won second place in the state of Wisconsin in the Letters About Literature Writing Competition.

Every year, students between grades 4 and 12 participate in the contest. They choose books, poems, and speeches from any author and write a letter to them about how their work influenced their life. Students from all over the United States are judged at both state and national levels.

Berger wrote a letter to John Green about his book, The Fault in Our Stars. She wrote about how his book helped her through tough times in her life, and how she was able to relate to its characters.

Along with a framed award, Berger also won a $25 Barnes and Noble gift card, a $50 check, as well as a few books, one of which was written by Mary Lou Santovec, Wisconsin Coordinator for Letters about Literature.

North also had 17 semi-finalists who qualified for state judging: Alesha Boegh, Hailee Brunk, Hannah Elliott, Devlin Evans, Maria Falk, Emily Kadrich, Anna Kossolapov, Jack Leggett, Caleb Paulick, Summer Ragan, Taylor Rammer, Nora Reljic, Rachael Robeson, Joe Sarnowski, Emma Schuttenhelm, Avani Walker, and Max Yanacek.

Similarly, last year, Oshkosh North had two winners and eight semi-finalists. In first place, Charlie Bock read Winning Ugly by Brad Gilbert, who through it, helped him learn the mental aspect of tennis. Honorable Mention Paige Wilson read Wonder by R. J. Palacio and wrote about how it helped her to better relate with others.

Any student interested in participating in the 2019-2020 competition may enter. Judging is broken up into three categories: Level 1 (grades 4—6), Level 2 (grades 7—8), and Level 3 (9—12). Students do not need to be taking any specific classes to enter. Those wanting to participate can look on the read.gov website to learn how to enter as soon as information for next year’s competition is available.