University Park, PA -- The Pennsylvania Center for the Book, sponsored by the Penn State University Libraries, announces the Pennsylvania winners of the 2002 Letters About Literature (LAL) contest, a nationwide contest inviting students in two grade categories to write letters to authors—alive or dead—explaining how the author's words changed their view of the world and themselves. Geoffrey W. Locher wins the Level I prize, covering grades four through seven, for his letter to Stephen Crane about The Red Badge of Courage. Michael J. Shafer wins the Level II award, covering grades eight through twelve, for his letter to Henry David Thoreau about Walden.

Now in its nineteenth year, LAL is sponsored by the Weekly Reader Corporation and the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Each state has the opportunity to participate. All statewide winners are entered to win the national award given to a student in the fourth through seventh, and eighth through twelfth grade categories.

Locher, a fifth-grade student at Richland Elementary School in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and Shafer, an eleventh-grade student at Palmerton Area High School in Palmerton, Pennsylvania, will receive their awards at Penn State's Children's Literature Matters Conference on April 6, 2002, at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel in State College.

Level I honorable mention goes to Julie Percha for her letter to Lois Lowry for The Giver; Steven M. Finkelstein for his letter to Shel Silverstein for Where the Sidewalk Ends; Evan Rosenberg for his letter to Theodore Taylor for The Cay; Lillian DeRitter for her letter to Mary Shelley for Frankenstein; and Laura L. Laskey for her letter to Katherine Paterson for Bridge to Terabithia.

Level II honorable mention goes to Margaret Byron for her letter to Tom Barron for The Ancient One, The Merlin Effect, The Lost Years of Merlin Series; Tasha McNeillie for her letter to Rachel Carson for Silent Spring; Elisabeth Day for her letter to Ann Rinaldi for Hang A Thousand Trees with Ribbons: the Story of Phillis Wheatley; Katie Terrana for her letter to John Grisham for The Street Lawyer; Alison Wall for her letter to Susanna Kaysen for Girl, Interrupted; and Elizabeth Casamassima for her letter to James Hurst for The Scarlet Ibis.

The state judges for this year's LAL contest were Ruth Zeisloft, an eleventh-grade advanced placement English teacher in Erie, Pennsylvania; Elizabeth Jenkins, assistant to the department head and internship coordinator in the Department of English at Penn State University; and Joyce Pinkerton, former head of Children's Services at the Cleve J. Fredricksen Library in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

For more information about the contest and awards, please contact Steven L. Herb, director, Pennsylvania Center for the Book, at 814-863-2141 or visit the Web site—www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu.