Nicole Sara Joseph, a sixth grade student at Grover Middle School, has placed first among students in grades four to six, in the New Jersey 2005 Letters about Literature competition. She receives a cash award and a $50 Target gift card and her essay has been submitted for the National Letters for Literature competition. Toni Russo is her language arts teacher.
Her essay is about the book, “Because of Anya,” a story about a pre-teen girl who suffered from alopecia areata and her newly-founded peer support system. The novel, written by Margaret Peterson Haddix and published by Simon & Schuster, is recommended for ages 8 to 12.
The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress invited readers in grades 4 through 12 to enter the national reading and writing contest by writing a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre — fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic, explaining how that author’s work changed the student’s way of thinking about the world or themselves.
