 Well, I'm Christine Walsh. I am the president of the Nebraska Center for the Book, and I'd like to welcome all of you to the annual Letters about Literature Celebration. No, we're not able to gather in person. We really want to celebrate the talents of all the students that have participated, and those of that have been selected for awards. This is a 22nd annual contest, and it is coordinated and sponsored by the Nebraska Center for the Book, the Nebraska Library Commission, Houch and Bindery, Humanities Nebraska, and Chapter's Bookstore and Seward. Our Nebraska Center supports programs to celebrate and stimulate public interest in books, reading, and the written word, and we have been an affiliate of the Library of Congress Center for the Book since 1990. On behalf of the board, I would like to say thank you to all the students, teachers, librarians, families, and mentors who have been a part of each student's writing journey. To each of the students, I would say we truly hope that you will continue to be lifelong readers and writers. So without further ado, I'd like to turn the celebration over to Tessa. Thanks, Christine. So we're starting with level two, and our runner up is Lena Dvorak. I hope I say you guys the names right, but if I don't, I apologize. She is in the eighth grade. She goes to Irving Middle School and she wrote a book. She wrote her letter to author Melissa, and I'm not gonna say this last name right, the Shardos. So I'm gonna turn this over to Lena and let her, first I'm going to read a comment from the judges that they left me about Lena's letter. This letter was very well written. The writer handles sophisticated sentence structure incredibly well for someone in this age range. The first paragraph in particular is rhetorically interesting. By starting with an almost challenging question, who am I? The writer grabs the reader's attention right out of the gate. Also, the writer immediately establishes a dialogue with the reader through the use of I and U pronouns. And even though the letter is primarily self-reflective, the writer does a nice job in the end of showing how this self-reflection actually helped her to interact more empathetically with a friend. So I'm gonna turn this over to Lena and she can say a few words or read her letter if she'd like. Well, I first read this book two years ago, but it wasn't until I reread it that its message really spoke to me. Dear Melissa Basher-Dust, who am I? If I asked you this question, you wouldn't be able to answer it because you don't know me. But even if you could, I wouldn't listen to your answer. Not out of rudeness, but because I have learned that I should endow no one but myself with the ability to define who I am. In fact, it was your book, Girls Made of Snow and Glass that taught me this. Before reading this book, I was suffering from an identity crisis I didn't even know I had. As is the same with most people my age, my friends, thoughts, appearance, and sometimes even values were consistently changing. I allowed myself to conform without a second thought, to let myself be molded by whatever society or my friends thought I should be. As stated earlier, I wasn't even conscious of this, but upon reflection after reading your book, I slowly started to realize that the struggles that Lena and Nina faced were more applicable to me than I had originally thought. Lena, for instance, is told by everyone that she is the exact image of her mother and will be just as perfect and delicate as she was. It is only when she begs free from these expectations that she is able to resolve her problems and understand who she really is. This brings to mind a time when a friend told me that I looked like an actress on a TV show that she watched. After looking this actress up, I discovered two things. First, she did look like me. Second, she was about the same age as me, but was already a talented model and actress. For weeks, I struggled with this. I tried to be as pretty, as talented, as good as her. After that, I kind of forgot about it, but it was still unresolved in my mind. That is until I decided to reread the book. For some reason, after reading it that second time, something about it finally clicked. I realized that I didn't need to try to emulate someone to be acceptable. I should strive to build myself based off of who I am, not who I might wish I was. Like Lynne, I realized that I couldn't build an identity out of something unoriginal. I dove deeper through my experiences. I started realizing that there were some other parallels between the characters' struggle for their identities and mine. For instance, I realized that the exclusion I had felt from some of my sixth grade friends that I blamed myself for, that I thought was caused by a fault in my character, was not. I thought that they didn't want to be friends with me because I had a bland personality, and so I took all the blame. It was liberating to finally realize that it was them, not me. While they hadn't said anything explicitly to me that made me feel at fault, their actions gaslighted me into believing it. Because of others' actions, my internal perception of myself became distorted from who I truly was. It was like when Nina thinks she has to be a villain because she is told a lie that she can never love due to her glass heart. I had gone down a road that had led to self-discovery, and I thought that it just ended there. Note, on my usual walk home from school, I noticed that one of my close friends was oddly silent. After a bit of talking, I discovered that she was upset because she was jealous of me. This wasn't the first time it happened, but this time I was able to understand exactly how she felt. Not only did the newfound knowledge of myself help me develop a deeper kind of empathy for her, it also made her feel better because I could explain that I felt envious and unrivy sometimes too. Identity has a farther reach through parts of my life than I had ever imagined before I read Girls Made of Snow and Glass. With the help of your book, I gained self-confidence, made peace with my past middle school self, and realized that by understanding myself, I could better understand others. Most importantly, through your book, I began the quest of finding my identity. Thank you, Lena Dvorak. Thank you so much, Lena. It's since everyone's muted, we can't hear everybody clapping for you, but that was excellent. Congratulations on winning. Okay, so our winner for the Level II writing competition is Annika Svostev. I hope I said that right. She is a seventh grader, also from Irving Middle School, and she wrote to Michelle Obama. And just a couple of notes from me, judges. In the case of the letter to Michelle Obama about becoming, we were particularly impressed by how the letter writer addressed Michelle throughout the letter in a very natural way. It felt like a conversation the letter writer was having with someone she respected. It never felt like a fan letter, and it didn't feel like an essay with a salutation stuck on top in a nod to the required letter format. The references to events and experiences Michelle wrote about in her book also felt organically included, not shoehorned in. The letter never developed into a plot summary. So I'm gonna turn it over to Annika and let her say a few words or read her letter. Thank you. I'm Annika and my interest in Michelle Obama started around fifth grade when my teacher started reading me just a few of her speeches. And so when I heard that she came out with an autobiography, I decided to read it. So without further ado, my letter. Dear Michelle Obama, for many years, I've observed that lots of people just do what they're told. When something goes bad, most don't even make an attempt to fix it. It's bad and that is that. I can't do anything to fix that is what I hear. And in my life, I've almost always subconsciously followed those standards. Reading your book, Becoming, helped me learn that thinking like that is of no benefit to life or to society. I'm involved in music and sports. There's almost always gonna be somebody better than me. Sometimes that can be intimidating. When you went to Princeton, you were a little intimidated, especially when others looked down at you because of your skin color. Sorry. You handled that situation nicely and taught me that I cannot give into intimidation. You kept your head up, kept doing your work and being happy and that really got you places. Now I know that giving into intimidation is something that I unnecessarily do. Instead, I can just keep my head up and stay positive. I'm a minority. Being brown in today's society is definitely not as challenging as being black, especially a black woman. However, reading about how you managed being black in a sea of white inspired me. When you went to Princeton, most of your classmates were white. In your time there, you were deliberately treated differently for being black. Once it was your roommate's mother complaining to the school because her child was placed in a room with an African-American. Sometimes it was more subtle. It was your professors and classmates giving you looks. You wrote, quote, it was impossible to be a black kid at a mostly white school and not feel the shadow of affirmative action. You could almost read the scrutiny and the gaze of students and even some professors as if they wanted to say, I know what you're here. These moments could be demoralizing even if I'm sure I'm just imagining some of it. End quote. Things are definitely a bit easier for me perhaps because society's grown up a little bit but racism still hits me in various ways. Usually people will say something that isn't even meant to be racist but it still ends up being racist. Sometimes it's you, it doesn't really look good with your skin color or it doesn't look good. It doesn't look like we're all matching because you have a different skin tone. I don't necessarily care if an outfit doesn't look good with my skin tone but I do care about the tone of voice that some people use to tell me that. When people say it that way it almost always leads back to, it's because of your skin color. You dealt with and still deal with racism so much more than I have to but reading how you managed it showed me that I'm the same as anyone else. I just don't sunburn as easily because of the extra melanin. And now seeing what you have to deal with and seeing all of the social injustices that so many people have to deal with all their lives I see the world as a place where so many things are unfair. I used to think that if someone has a bad habit or they're rude that they couldn't fix it. In Becoming you wrote about how Barak changed for you and not only that but how you coped with some of his ways. You both changed to make your relationship work. When you met Barak he was a smoker and he didn't keep things as tidy as he would have liked. You were certain you didn't like him but over the course of a few years he started changing. He quit smoking and also tidied up a bit but you also had to change. You had to cope with some of his imperfections just as he had to cope with some of yours. My outlook on change used to be that somebody needs to change. They need to do it and I can't really help them but now I know that change is a two-way street and it's usually not a one-person job. I subconsciously thought that everyone was one way and that they couldn't change but after reading Becoming I see that people can and will change and that being a minority doesn't define me. Your book taught me a lot about how I can make myself better and that so many things I worry about in the past are things I don't need to worry about and for that I thank you. Anika wonderful job. I want to invite everybody to unmute right now and just give these to the wild applause that they deserve for their great work. We are going to move on to the level one runner up and winner. So I have, let's see, our level one runner up is Alondra Ramos Figueroa and she is a fifth grader from Wassmer Elementary and she wrote to Alan Gratz and I am going to read a couple of comments. Oh, I have a couple of general comments just from the judges about the level one letters. They said, we had a number of well thought out letters to different authors and it was something of a challenge to narrow them down to two, a winner and a runner up. As we read, we found two students who made a real connection with a book and its author. Alondra, our runner up, commented that the character Yannick in the book she read inspired her because he never gave up. She hopes to do the same. This made a real connection with us in selecting her letter. One judge said, I hope she never quits even when things get super tough, just like Yannick. Congratulations to the level one runner up, Alondra. All right, Alondra, I'm gonna hand it over to you. Hi, so I've read the book when I was in fourth grade. I was in this class and my teacher would give me these books about World War II and I love the topic World War II because it is just so interesting and it's like, I love it. So I love reading books based on like true stories from World War II and when my teacher gave me this book, I loved it. It's just still my favorite book out of so many books I've ever read and yeah, so I just really like it. My letter is Dear Alan Gratz. After I read your book, Prisoner B 3087, it inspired me. I wanted to read more about the topics. It just really changed how I see things now. I can't really relate because nothing like that has ever happened to me before but I have read a lot about it and the best part is your book made me feel like I was actually there. I lived with the characters. This book taught me hope because I realized Yannick never gave up so I needed to do the same. I look back to this book and realize I'm just like Yannick. I'm in gymnastics and things sometimes get super tough and I feel like I want to quit. I want to collapse and start crying because I can't make it but at the end of the day, at the end of the day, I know everything is all right. I knew I couldn't give up. I also found out that my favorite subject in school is social studies. I got so interested in history because of your book. My mom calls me a gifted student in social studies and she says I can even teach someone about the World War II topic. When I go to a higher grade, I'm thinking I'll take classes about World War II and the Holocaust. Your book has inspired me so much and it is so motivational in some way. Thank you for writing this. I'm sure it has touched other people too. Sincerely, Alondra. Thank you, Alondra. Congratulations again on runner up in this contest. So our level one winner is Oslo Ghegg and he is a sixth grader from Irving Middle School and he wrote to Homer Hickman and a couple of notes from the judges. Oslo connected with us both as his comment was about the author's quote. I had discovered that learning something no matter how complex wasn't hard when I had a reason to want to know it. It is a perfect idea to live by. We agree. Congratulations to the level one winner, Oslo Ghegg. So I'm gonna turn it over and let Oslo say a few words and read his letter if you'd like to. My letter goes like, dear Homer, your book, The Rocket Boys, change how I think about the world by showing how a minor son in 1950s, West Virginia became a successful NASA engineer and writer. You being able to do that showed me that anybody can do something amazing no matter how difficult the odds. I remember you saying in your book, I had discovered that learning something no matter how complex wasn't hard when I had a reason to want to know it. Your quote really captured my attention. I think it is a perfect idea to live by. When though I'm in sixth grade, consider myself to be an amateur rocketeer. I began constructing rockets in the fourth grade and I've always lived stories about how kids in the 1950s tested their rockets. They had to do with what they had and they had to be smart about how they did it. While reading your book, I learned that because rocketry hadn't been developed yet and was still in its military, you can use amateur rocket scientists had to be innovative and use everyday materials. Compared to your experience perfecting rocket motors, I'm truly lucky to have modern rocketry luxuries like premade rocket motors. Otherwise, I'd have to spend hours of energy and many dollars in supplies obtaining the perfect ratio of fuels. Also, while reading your book, I learned that you won the 1960 National Science Fair by designing a de-level nozzle to increase thrust. That portion of your book made me realize that someone from a lightly populated area can accomplish just as much as someone from a highly populated area. I'm much more confident in my future after reading your book, The Rocket Voice, because you want to become a NASA engineer from quite humble beginnings. Before I always wanted to be a doctor, but ever since reading Rocket Voice, I've inspired to become an engineer and I've already attended two space programs. To the view into your book, I motivated to continue designing and building rockets, graduate from mechanical engineering degree and one day design engines for NASA, just like you. Great job. Once again, I'm going to ask you guys to unmute and give everyone a round of applause for our level one and two winners. Okay, I'm going to hand things over to Charles as the level three judge who's with us today. He's going to introduce and talk about his level three winners. Hi, my name's Chuck Cill-Hannings. You see my screen thing up there is Dr. J. I'm a professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and it was my great pleasure this year to read the entries for level three with Richard Miller who's from the Nebraska Library Commission. He couldn't be here with us today. I've been teaching high school and college now for English for about 40 years. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's that you never really can tell how a book is going to affect a reader. And all the people that I've been hearing from all these wonderful young people I've been hearing from so far have done what I always encourage students to do, make it their own. Because sometimes teachers have their own agendas, professors have their own agendas. But I love how everyone has sort of gotten what they wanted out of it, whether it's inspiration to become an engineer or sort of a better sense of who they are. That's just great. And both Caden Slaputza and Anna Daly's letters, Caden's was the runner up and Anna's was in first place, show people making these books their own. And I don't think we have Anna with us. So I will just say something about Caden's's letter. There was, by the way, I should let you know Caden's had a lot of competition this year. There are a lot of good letters out there, but yours stood out. And I think what Richard Miller and I were most impressed with was your bravery. Caden's's letter is about a book that deals a lot with adolescent mental health issues. And for someone like Caden's to write about it, to send it off to a contest and then maybe even to read it here, takes a lot of courage and it's very inspiring. As a college professor, I can tell you, and I work a lot with high school students, a lot of mental health issues, but unfortunately not everybody deals with them. And what we were also struck by with Caden's letter is how she connected John Green's book to her own life. And I'm guessing there are hundreds of thousands of other young people who've done something similar, but your writing made us feel it. Really, you gave us glimpses into how you adjusted or you took what was in the book and really saw how it related to your life. And I must say, the scene that really got us the most was when you were driving around with a boyfriend and he took a different route on the way home. And that threw you and panicked you because of what something you're dealing with, an issue you're dealing with. And you said, I didn't talk to him for the rest of the night. It took me some time, but eventually I wanted to be able to sit down and talk about it with him just like Aza eventually did. And I hope you did have that conversation and I hope it went well. And one of the great things about reading is that those authors who can write a book like this provoke people to start thinking about their own lives. And it sounds like this book really helped you start recognizing what you were dealing with and reach out for the help you wanted to get. And so, and it commend you and it was just a beautifully written letter, by the way. So yeah, there was nothing stuck about it at all. So, love that, so good job. Thank you so much. It's really a great honor to have been chosen runner up. And I would love to read my letter for you guys. Dear John Green, I can't have the radio volume on six because it's not a safe number and I will get hurt. I need to make it a volume number ending in five or zero. What if the devil is in me like my grandma said, can others sense it? Am I a monster? You may be wondering why I chose to start this letter with these erratic thoughts, but it is because those are just a few of the many thoughts that go through my head every day. While I knew what anxiety and OCD were, I wasn't quite sure I had them. It wasn't until I read your book when I realized I should probably mention it to my parents and therapists. Hereinase's story and struggles and turtles all the way down allowed me to recognize my struggles and I could then start the process of getting help. Society has created a stigmatism around anxiety, making it seem like it's not normal or being exaggerated for attention. Because of this, it's often hard to relate to others and understand that it's okay. The institution of mental health explains that for a person with anxiety disorder, the anxiety does not go away and it can get worse over time. The symptoms can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, schoolwork, and relationships. Due to the stigmatism society has created, not many people know this. Another common misinterpreted mental disorder that I deal with is OCD or obsessive compulsive disorder. A generalized idea that comes when people think of OCD as tidiness or color coding, et cetera, but it's more than that. The International OCD Foundation explains OCD as obsessions are unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images, or urges that trigger intensely distressing feelings. Compulsions are behaviors and individual engages in an attempt to rid the obsessions and or decrease his or her distress. My triggers are numbers, double or triple checking things and routines. Every day I fight the compulsions that come with the obsessive thinking of my triggers. I often tend to feel alone in my head because of how society perceives anxiety in OCD. But reading A's story helped me realize I'm not the only one who struggles with them. Growing up, I had friends and family tell me or tell me don't worry so much or you're overreacting. Hearing these were incredibly invalidating and made me feel as if there was something wrong with me and that my thoughts were terrible or stupid. When I read A's story, it was an eye opener. A particular quote in your book that stood out to me because it does a great job explaining what anxiety feels like for me. That quote is, the thing about a spiral is if you follow it inward, it never actually ends. It just keeps tightening infinitely. For me, anxiety feels just like what this quote is representing. Once my mind starts to worry, it's like a spiral. It gets tighter and tighter and makes me feel trapped. A's feels this too and it helps me remember I am truly not alone. Your book does a fantastic job of explaining mental illness and the toll it can take on someone. Throughout your book, we see A's struggle with sharing who she is to David. Like when they first kissed, A's had a panic attack and left not talking to him for a few days. She was so scared of all the microorganisms and bacteria she received from kissing him that she isolated herself. I too have been there. There was once a time when I was driving around with my boyfriend, he was taking me home but he doesn't normally take. And roots are a huge trigger for me so I started to panic and cry. When he brought me home, I didn't talk to him for the rest of the night and took me some time but eventually I wanted to be able to sit down and talk to him about it just like if A's eventually did. It's because of her that I've made the progress I have with my mental illness. So I want to thank you for sharing your story with readers. Like I said, it left a significant impact on me and who I am today. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much, Gaten. We are so proud of all our winners and runner-ups. They wrote some amazing letters and it's always eye-opening to see the letters come in and see how thoughtful and just amazing these kids are that are writing these letters. So congratulations to all of you. Congratulations to the teachers who helped their students pick out books and write their letters and submit them. We could not do this program without you supporting us and helping us keep it going. And I'm going to turn it over to Neeney Smith who's on our Nebraska Center for the Book Board and she's just going to close us out. Well, in closing, I would like to congratulate the winners and runners-up again of our Nebraska Letters About Literature for this year. Your letters will be placed in the Heritage Room at Lincoln City Libraries as is tradition. Congratulations for finding the joy in literature and seeing how it applies to your own lives. Reading can be enjoyed your whole life and be a wonderful source of entertainment, diversion and growth and knowledge. We invite you to share your appreciation of literature with your friends and encourage others to enter the Letters About Literature Contest in the coming year. Thank you to all the teachers, librarians, parents and others who encourage students to send their entries this past year. Thanks to our judges, Joanne Neiman, Sally Snyder, Holly Adderbury, Susan Nisley, Richard Miller and Charles Johanningsmeyer. And thanks to the generous folks who provided prizes, Puchin Bindery and Cindy Osborn of Utica chapters books, Carla Kettner of Seward and Nebraska Center for the Book. It has been our pleasure to have you all join us tonight and we hope that you enjoy the remainder of your evening, maybe even with a good book.