Pennington School students Daisy Hutnik, an eighth-grader from Hopewell, and Lucy Ort, a sixth-grader from Skillman, placed first and second in their respective levels of the 2017-18 Library of Congress Letters about Literature contest.
According to the Library of Congress website, Letters about Literature is a reading and writing contest for students in grades 4 through 12. Students are asked to read a book, poem, or speech and write to the author (living or dead) about the personal impact the literature had upon the student.
Hutnik’s letter to Douglas Adams was judged first place winner for Level 2 (grades seven and eight). Her letter will continue on to Washington to be judged nationally. Ort’s letter to Marcus Zusak was judged second place winner for Level 1 (grades four through six).
Pennington students Mateo Lopez-Castro, Kate Coakley, Nikolas Chase and Lucy Harding, all of Pennington, and Miami Celentana of Ewing won distinguished honors.
More than 1,500 entries were sent in from New Jersey for the contest, and the winning letters passed five rounds of judging on both national and state levels. The statewide celebration of winning letters will take place on May 8 at Rutgers University.
For more information on the contest, visit read.gov/letters.
Daisy Hutnik,
