Elementary school students named in Library of Congress writing contest

WESTFALL — Delaware Valley Elementary School students Andrew Neidig (Mrs. Ann Connell’s sixth grade—now promoted to grade 7) and Martha Morton (Miss Sara Casey’s fourth grade—now promoted to grade 5) are pictured reading their letters for the Letters About Literature Contest on DVE-TV. They are also pictured in the front hall of DVES with their congratulatory letters informing them of their finalist status in the contest. For the contest, the students were to write a letter to their favorite author telling him/her how they or something they wrote made a lasting impact on them. While the contest guidelines did not call for the letters to actually to be sent to the author, but rather just to the Library of Congress’ THE BOOK project, the staff of DVES took the project a step further. They actually mailed letters from each student in grades 4 through 6 to the author their letter was written to. Many students received very touching and wonderful replies for their favorite authors. In the end, Andrew and Martha’s entries were picked by a bunch of judges from all over our state/. They are two of only 50 people who were chosen as finalists from 976 received from the entire state of Pennsylvania. Andrew read “Heat,” by Mike Lupica. Martha read “The Journal of Wang Ming-Chung,” Laurence Yep, Andrew and Martha will have their names posted on the Letters About Literature website so check it out. The website is www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/activities/LAL/index.html. — By Ashley Grant