Students from Whitefish, Missoula and Billings captured top honors in this year’s Montana Letters About Literature writing contest. Judges selected the winning entries from more than 350 submissions statewide in three separate age categories.

Letters About Literature is a reading and writing promotion program of the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. Presented in partnership with Target Stores, the program is sponsored at the state level by Humanities Montana and the Montana Center for the Book.

“We are so grateful for the eloquence, creativity and dedication of these younger readers,” said Ken Egan, executive director of Humanities Montana. “They are demonstrating that Montana’s rich literary tradition has a promising future. And thanks to the teachers who encouraged the award winners and all participants.”

To enter, young readers wrote personal letters to authors explaining how their work changed their views of the world or themselves. Readers selected authors from any genre—from fiction or nonfiction to contemporary or classic. The program has three competition levels: upper elementary, middle school and secondary. The contest theme encourages young readers to explore their responses to a book and then express those responses in a creative, original way.

The state winners in the three age categories are:

Level I, grades 4-6

• First Place, Sara Craven, Whitefish Middle School, Whitefish, for her letter to Christopher Paolini, author of “Eragon.”
• Second Place, Faith Malley, Bigfork Elementary, Bigfork, for her letter to James Patterson, author of the “Maximum Ride” series.
• Third Place, Jack Blair, Whitefish Middle School, Whitefish, for his letter to Henry Winkler, author of “Holy Enchilada.”

• First Place, Kira Means, individual entry, Missoula, for her letter to Sarah Dessen, author of “The Truth About Forever.”
• Second Place, Brenna Glidewell, individual entry, Lolo, for her letter to Norma Jean Lutz, author of “Meg Follows a Dream.”
• Third Place, Rodney Watters, Choteau Schools, Choteau, for his letter to Darren Shan, author of “Cirque-Du-Freak.”

• First Place, Jessica Dringman, Billings West High School, Billings, for her letter to Immaculee Ilibagiza, author of “Left to Tell.”
• Second Place, Nicole Ficek, Billings West High School, Billings for her letter to Zilpha Keatley Snyder, author of “The Egypt Game.”
• Third Place, Kaitlyn Christopher, Billings West High School, Billings, for her letter to Judy Blume, author of “Here’s to You Rachel Robinson.”

Montana finalists each receive a cash prize, and state first-place winners all receive a $50 gift card to Target Stores. First-place winners also were entered in the national contest.

This year’s LAL state judges were Penny Hughes-Briant, English professor at The University of Great Falls; Missoula author Dorothy Hinshaw Patent; and Kim Anderson, Humanities Montana associate director of programs. Guidelines for the 2010 Letters About Literature program will be posted in August on the Humanities Montana Web site.