Three Washington students showed that the emotional power and inspiration of the written word is as strong as ever. The three state champions in this year’s Letters About Literature contest read aloud their winning entries before a large audience in the Capitol Friday, sharing life lessons they learned from authors who inspired them. [caption id="attachment_23293" align="alignnone" width="640"]

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  Mia Widrow, a fourth-grader at Lincoln Options Elementary School in Olympia, is the Level 1 (grades 4-6) champion. Widrow wrote her letter to Laura Ingalls Wilder about her book Little House on the Prairie. Here is part of Widrow’s letter:

Before reading your book, I did not think very much about how Native Americans were treated back then, or even now. Now I think that the way they are treated now is still a bit like in your time. My school had an assembly when Billy Frank Jr. died a few years ago. I learned that he was a Nisqually Indian who got arrested over fifty times just for fishing salmon, even though the treaty gave him the right to fish in his land.

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  Annabelle Melton, an eighth-grader at Amboy Middle School in Amboy, is the Level 2 (grades 7-8) champion. Melton wrote her letter to John Green about his book Looking for Alaska. From her letter:

What is life? This is a question that many spend their entire career slaving over, never truly finding the answer. Scientists know what we're made of, they know the chemicals and components in our bodies and in our brains, and they think they can give us the answer in a mathematical equation. But no, they're all wrong. Life is so simple that it can be explained with one simple sentence, the sentence that you introduced to me in your book Looking for Alaska. By the end of this letter, I will have told you how your book gave me a refreshed outlook on my world with a simple phrase: "Everything that comes together must fall apart."

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  Julia Wang, a ninth-grader from Sammamish, is the Level 3 champion (grades 9-12). Wang penned her letter to Rudolfo Anaya about his book Bless Me, Ultima. An excerpt explains how a character in the book reminds Wang of her own mother:

When Antonio's mother begs Antonio's three brothers to stay, I see my mother in her. I see the mother who stayed by my bed when I had severe asthma. I see the mother who drove for hours searching for her daughter who had ran away from her. I see the mother who silently cried when her daughter left, shameful for showing her emotions. Your book has taught me to appreciate the love of a mother and to never forget a mother's advice and support. Just like how Ultima and Antonio's mother nurtured Antonio, my own mother has cared for me and been there for me.

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