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State Winners Letters About Literature 2005
Each year, six National and 12 National Honor letters are chosen from the tens of thousands of entries. National winners can name the library of their choice to receive a $10,000 award from Target, and the students receive a $500 Target GiftCard. National Honor winners can name a library to receive a $1,000 award from Target, and the students receive a $50 Target GiftCard.
| State | Level I | Level II | Level III |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Carter Goodwyn, Montgomery, to Lillie Paterson, author of “Martin Luther King Jr. and the Freedom Movement” | Leslie Kraynak, Spanish Fort, to Antoine De Saint-Expuery, author of “The Little Prince” | Ellen Cresay, Florence, to C. S. Lewis, author of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” |
| Alaska | Cassidey Walker, Dutch Harbor, to Martin Luther King Jr., author of "I Have a Dream" speech | Marshall Farris, Wasilla, to Mitch Albom, author of “Tuesdays with Morrie” | Jenna Blackburn, Kenai, to Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird” |
| Arizona | Moriah Kandi Greathouse, Tempe, to Jerry Spinelli, author of “Loser” | Sergio José Cañez, Tuson, to J. R. R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings series | Kathleen Conti, Tucson, to Madeline L’Engle, author of “A Ring of Endless Light” |
| Arkansas | Benjamin Dardas, Harrison, to Lois Lowry, author of “The Giver” | Camille Coston, Little Rock, to Tamora Pierce, author of “Trickster’s Choice” | Elisa Shea, Bismarck, to David Pelzer, author of “A Child Called It ” |
| California | Kelsey Woo, Newport Beach, to Betty Smith, author of“ A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” | Laura Gibson, Upland, to Marian Hale, author of “The Truth About Sparrows” | Hann-Shuin Yew, San Jose, to Iris Chang, author of “The Rape of Nanking” |
| Colorado | Emma Thompson, Denver, to Lois Lowry, author of “The Giver” | ** Gabe Goodman, Greeley, to Terry Trueman, author of “Stuck in Neutral” | Brad Young, Colorado Springs, to T.H. White, author of the Once and Future King |
| Connecticut | Anna Alferi, West Hartford, to Andy Lipman, author of “Alive at 25” | Sophia Harrington, West Hartford, to Georges Duplaix, author of “The Big Brown Bear” | Abbe Muller, West Hartford, to Elie Weisel, author of “Dawn” |
| District of Columbia | Nina Silverberg, to Sharon Creech, author of “Walk Two Moons” | Christopher Prust, to Albert Marrin, author of “Hitler” | Yesenia Ventura, to Mitch Albom, author of “Tuesdays with Morrie” |
| Florida | Terry Hemmingway, Land O’ Lakes, to Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, author of “Shiloh” |
Alexandra Mulligan, Coral Springs, to Judy Blume, author of “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” | Mary Kate Floyd, Weston, to Sue Mayfield, author of “Drowning Anna” |
| Georgia | Caitlin Whitehead, Franklin, to Ursula K. LeGuin, author of “Catwings” | Ashley Price, Macon, to Anne Frank, author of “The Diary of Young Girl” | Jung (Mary Beth) Yoon, to Bill Watterson, author of “Calvin & Hobbes” |
| Hawaii | Sydney Yoshioka, Honolulu, to Kate Dicamillo, author of “The Tale of Despereaux” |
Emma de Vries, Kailua, to O. Henry, author of "The Gift of the Magi" | Maran Osakoda, Kapaa, to Dave Pelzer, author of “A Child Called It” |
| Illinois | ** Mitchell Curtis Deck, Peoria, to Keith Brandt, author of “Lou Gehrig, Pride of the Yankees” | Jocelyn Garibay, Bloomingdale, to Steven Levenkron, author of “The Luckiest Girl in the World” | “Matthew Levine, Evanston, to Lance Armstrong, author of“ It’s Not About the Bike”” |
| Indiana | Logan Rassel, Valparaiso, to J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series | Christina Goggin, Cambridge City, to Emily Dickinson, author "If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking" | Shannon O’Halloran, Muncie, to Sylvia Plath, author of “The Bell Jar ” |
| Iowa | Erica Bjelland, Decorah, to Patricia Reilly Giff, author of “Pictures of Hollis Woods” | Bekah Hanish, Badger, to Lynn and Gilbert Morris, author of “Driven with the Wind” | ** Edward Chen, Ames, to Albert Camus, author of “The Stranger” |
| Kentucky | Daniel Kiesling, Lexington, to Emily Rodda, author of “Rowan of Rin” | K. C. Holbert, Bardstown, to J. R. R. Tolkien, author of “The Lord of the Rings trilogy” | None selected this year |
| Louisiana | None selected this year | None selected this year | Rachel Clark, Baker, to L. M. Montgomery, author of “Emily Climbs” |
| Maine | Sean Fay, Camden, to Carl Hiaasen, author of “Hoot” | Ansley White, Cumberland, to Jean Ferris, author of “Eight Seconds” | Katelyn E. Roedner, Saco, to Daniel Quinn, author of “My Ishmael” |
| Maryland | Darcy Costello, Columbia, to Mildred D. Taylor, author of “Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry” | Chelsea Heatley, Crofton, to Judy Blume, author of “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” | Ashleigh Jobson, Annapolis, to the anonymous author of “Go Ask Alice” |
| Massachusetts | Karlee Sullivan, Ayer, to Shel Silverstein, author of "The Voice" | Katharine Henry, Melrose, to Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden | Karen Wilfrid, to Katherine Mansfield, author of the story "Miss Brill" |
| Michigan | Crystel Barbee, Detroit, to Madonna, author of “English Roses” | Carissa Shalosky, Hillsdale, to Kimberly Kirberger, author of “No Body’s Perfect” | Anne Pedtke, Laingsburg, to Ray Bradbury, author of “Dandelion Wine” |
| Minnesota | Laura Thompson, Bemidji, to David Pelzer, author of “A Child Called It” | Stephen Kindt, Excelsior, to Vince Lombardi, author of "What It Takes to be Number 1" speech | Aaron LaFave, Faribault, to J. D. Salinger, author of “The Catcher in the Rye” |
| Mississippi | None selected this year | Kale Green, Ocean Springs, to Arthur C. Clarke, author of “2061: Odyssey Three” | None selected this year |
| Missouri | Katherine Petrullo, St. Louis, to Virginia Hamilton, author of “Bluish” | Lauren Croll, Columbia, to Terry McMillan, author of “Mama” | Jessica Lemaster, Nixa, to Charles Frazier, author of “Cold Mountain” |
| Montana | Josie Rundle, Bigfork, to Ben Mikaelsen, author of “Petey” | Nicole Lightner, Chateau, to Louis Sachar, author of “Holes” | Jenny Turk, Joliet, to L.M. Montgomery, author of “Anne of Green Gables” |
| Nebraska | Fiona Loggie, Omaha, to Dianne Gray, author of “Holding Up the Earth” | Elizabeth Milan, Herman, to Misty Bernall, author of “She Said Yes” | Alexander J. Lin, Lincoln, to Mark Twain, author of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” |
| Nevada | None selected this year | Gaby Al-Dabbagh, Las Vegas, to Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird” | None selected this year |
| New Hampshire | Shauna Casey, Salem, to Patricia Polacco, author of “Thank You, Mr. Falker” | Evelyn Anne Bulkeley, Plainfield, to Thorton Wilder, author of “Our Town” | None selected this year |
| New Jersey | Olivia Boser, Rumson, to Cherie Bennet and Jeff Gottesfeld, author of “Anne Frank and Me” |
Megan Hartwick, Mahwah, to Lois Lowry, author of “The Messenger” | Sanders Berstein, Mountain Lakes, to Humphrey Carpenter, author of “J.R.R. Tolkien, a Biography” |
| New Mexico | Joey Roback, Placitas, to Jerry Spinelli, author of “Loser” | Christian A. Zikmanis, Las Cruces, to Lois Lowry, author of “The Giver” | Heather Berghmans, Stanley, to Anne Rice, author of “Interview with the Vampire” |
| New York | Matthew Siegel, Grand Island, to Elizabeth George Speare, author of “The Sign of the Beaver” | Vivian Yu, Brooklyn, to Jerry Spinelli, author of “Stargirl” | Corina Encarnacion, Corona, to Franz Kafka, author of "The Metamorphosis" |
| North Carolina | Amira Elmalawny, Winston-Salem, to Kate DiCamillo, “Tale of Despereaux” | Sabrina Christensen, Asheville, to J. K. Rowling, author of“ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” | Hayley Gula, Mooresville, to Livia Bitton-Jackson, author of “I Have Lived a Thousand Years” |
| North Dakota | Mia Barnett, Fargo, to Ann M. Martin, author of “A Corner of the Universe ” | Macy Egeland, Bismarck, to Robert Newton Peck, author of “The Day No Pigs Would Die ” | Xiaowen Li, Fargo, to Toni Morrison, author of “The Bluest Eye” |
| Ohio | Sahar Atassi, Westlake, to C. S. Lewis, author of “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” | Rachel Clifton, Struthers, to Kathleen Benner Duble, author of “Bridging Beyond” | Kristin Burnside, Canton, to Alice Sebold, author of “The Lovely Bones” |
| Oklahoma | Joey C. De Angelis, Tulsa, to Jerry Spinelli, author of “Maniac Magee” | ** Amy Tai, Tulsa, to Amy Tan, author of “The Joy Luck Club” | Sarah Gibson, Fort Gibson, to Charles Dickens, author of “A Tale of Two Cities” |
| Oregon | ** Latricia Shaw, Springfield, to Dave Pelzer, author of “A Child Called It” | Erica Berry, Portland, to Cornelia Funke, author of “Inkheart” | Rosemary Engelfried, Hillsboro, to Lee Hammond, author of “Draw Horses” |
| Pennsylvania | Luke Edmondson, State College, to Louis Sachar, author of “Holes” | Kristen Soforic, Mt. Pleasant, to Madeline L’Engle, author of “A Wrinkle in Time” | Anna Eichner, Tarentum, to J. M. Barrie, author of “Peter Pan” |
| Rhode Island | Angela Russo, West Greenwich, to Wendelin Van Draanen, author of the Sammy Keyes books | Katherine Zullo, North Kingston, to Eireann Corrigan, author of “You Remind Me of You” | Jennifer Plume, Riverside, to J. K. Rowling, author of“ Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” |
| South Carolina | Mallory Blackmon, Lancaster, to Patricia Polacco, author of “Thank You, Mr. Faulker” | Brittany Cash, Chesnee, to Randy Powell, author of “Dean Duffy” | Amy Zhang, Columbia, to Amy Tan, author of “The Joy Luck Club” |
| South Dakota | Lottie A. Grimshaw, Mission, to Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of The Little House on the Prairie series | Paige Willett, Sioux Falls, to Alan Zullo and Mara Bovsun, authors of “Survivors, True Stories of Children in the Holocaust” | Meaghan Downs, Presho, to Emily Bronte, author of “Jane Eyre” |
| Tennessee | Isabelle Todd, Memphis, to Judy Blume, author of “Double Fudge” | Natalie Jacewicz, Memphis, to Daniel Keyes, author of “Flowers for Algernon” | Becca Johnson, Memphis, to Frank O’Hara, author of the poem "Steps" from “Lunch Poems” |
| Texas | Dulce Diaz, Garland, to E. B. White, author of “Trumpet of the Swans” | Charlie Minato, Plano, to Walter Dean Meyers, author of “Slam” | Jeff Derbyshire, Bellaire, to Leon Uris, author of “Trinity” |
| Utah | Shelby Nash, Murray, to Jerry Spinelli, author of “Wringer” | Spencer Thompson, Sandy, to Lois Lowry, author of “The Giver” | Weixin Le, Layton, to Taylor Hartman, author of “The Color Code” |
| Virginia | Natalie Kim, McLean, to Christopher Paul Curtis, author of “The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1963” | Kristin Lannetti, Norfolk, to David Pelzer, author of “The Lost Boy” | ** Hannah Danielle Pierce, Radford, to author of “The Westing ”Game |
| Washington | None selected this year | Jonathan Li, Seattle, to Michael Crichton, author of “Prey” | None selected this year |
| West Virginia | Ian Lovern, Bluefield, to George Orwell, author of “Animal Farm” | Alison Lester, Princeton, to J. R. R. Tolkien, author of “The Hobbit” | Carolyn Garcia, Fairmont, to Sharon Creech, author of “Bloomability” |
| Wisconsin | Lakshmi Varanasi, Racine, to Gloria Whelan, author of “Homeless Bird” | Jada Straub, Wisconsin Rapids, to Virginia Wolff, author of “Make Lemonade” | Kira Labby, Shawano, to Margery Williams, author of “The Velveteen Rabbit” |
| Wyoming | Rebecca Thompson, Casper, to Kate McMullan, “The Story of Harriet Tubman” | Katie Allegretto, Gillette, to Laurie Halse Anderson, author of “Speak” | Jesse Busch, Worland, to Lois Lowry, author of “The Giver” |
