Reagan Nelson, Contest Winner

     Yesterday I sat in the spacious office of Washington’s Secretary of State and listened while a sixth grader read a letter she had written to Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Hearing her made me a bit teary and I was as proud of her as though she was one of my own.  Though the words of the letter were well-known to me, it was my first opportunity to meet letter-writer Reagan Nelson.
     In February I had been one of three  judges who read the letters of fourth, fifth and sixth graders throughout our state and chose one – just one – as state winner.  Reagan’s letter went on to place first at the national level as well!  Out of the 69,000 letters originally entered in this amazing contest, Reagan was one of only six first place winners (Grades 4 through 12) in the nation!
     The contest involves kids reading books and then responding to them through letters ‘to’ the author, telling them how the book affected or even changed their lives.  After reading Little House on the Prairie, Reagan wrote to Laura Ingalls Wilder describing some hardships in her own life – her house had burned down a few years before; she and her dad had been in a bad automobile accident – comparing her experiences with some of those of the characters in the book.  She thanked Wilder for showing her that although change, either for good or bad, is always with us, it is not the change that delineates our paths.  It is what we do with those changes that determine how we live our lives.  It was a wonderful letter!
     Reagan was presented with certificates by Secretary of State Sam Reed and by Guy Lamolinara representing Center for the Book, Library of Congress.  She won $150 for herself and $10,000 for her school library at Hunter School in Spokane.  Think how many books and how many more Letters About Literature that money can generate!  Way to go Reagan!
     You can find out more about this contest, the other Washington State winners (and even read their letters!) by going to www.sos.wa.gov/library/.