2006 Letters About Literature - Honorable Mention, 8th grade

Dear Mr. Avi:

Throughout my life I have heard people say, “When you think that something is the end, it is really only the beginning.” I began to believe that shortly after I read Crispin, The Cross of Lead. When Crispin’s mother dies and he is declared a wolf’s head, he believes his life is over. He has no family, no house, no food. He has nothing; he is nothing-- or so he thinks. Crispin loses hope and believes the end has come, but, instead, his future has just begun.

Only a few weeks after I finished your book, my brother took me aside, sat me down, and he told me that he was going into the Air Force and would leave soon after his graduation. This was hard on my whole family, but I felt as if he was personally betraying me. All my life he and my older sister had been very close, doing everything together, and I always felt left out. However, my day came when my sister went off to college. My brother and I became extremely close, and, for the first time, I didn’t feel lonely. When my brother decided to go into the Air Force, only two years after my sister had gone to college, I felt that same lonely, resentful feeling. Crispin felt the same way after he was declared a wolf’s head and his mother died. I thought that my losing my brother was an end to all friendships, all happiness, all fun. Soon after my brother left, my family also left the church that we had gone to ever since I was in kindergarten. Now my feeling of resentment and loneliness grew to a whole new level. I was angry at my brother for leaving me and at my parents for making me leave my church family. I was wrong to be angry. The end of my brother’s childhood and the end of my family’s participation in our old church was really only the beginning of a bigger, brighter future.

All of this I came to realize after reading your book, Crispin. Although the transition to the new church was difficult just as Crispin's transition from a slave to a nobleman was, I found a whole new church family that included teenagers, lacking at my old church, who welcomed me into their lives. Crispin also showed me how selfish I really was: my brother went into the Air Force to find his future; it had nothing to do with leaving me behind. With his being permanently gone, I also grew up. No longer depending on other people to entertain me or make me happy, I began finding things to do on my own. And, when it came to my homeschooling, I assumed the responsibility for my own studies and didn't need incessant prodding to get things done.

Mr. Avi, your book unlocked a whole new view of life to me: not to linger on the past but look with hope to the present and the future. Now, when people say, "When you think that something is the end, it is really only the beginning," I think of your book and the window of opportunity it gave me to grow up and move on just as Crispin did. Thank you for provoking me to learn to not linger on the past, but, instead, to look ahead to the future.

Sincerely yours,


Samantha Weber
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And this is the text of the letter she received congratulating her for receiving an honorable mention award:

Dear Samantha:

I am writing today to congratulate you. Your letter to Avi about Crispin: The Cross of Lead has received honorable mention in the Letters About Literature contest co-sponsored in Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book. Now in its 23 year, Letters About Literature is a national essay contest sponsored by Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and Target Stores. The award winner for Level II (7th -8th grade) is Jenny Uehling, a seventh grader from Glenside, PA.

Samantha, you are one of only two people among nearly 500 contestants who will be receiving this honorable mention letter. That means that you letter was selected by the national screening committee; judged by the Pennsylvania Center for the Book’s screening committee as one of the 10 best letters in the state, and then chosen as the best letter in the state by two of Pennsylvania’s six judges. Your letter received a first, second, or third place vote on all six of the judge’s ballots. Because of your high score on the balloting, the close vote in your age category, but mostly because of your excellent letter, we have decided to award you a special distinction citation. As such, we are asking you if you will allow us to place your letter on our website—the only letter to be so honored beyond the three winners for the three age groups. Furthermore, we will be sending you a certificate acknowledging your work and a check for 50$ to celebrate your accomplishment. You have every reason to be proud, Samantha.

In the next few weeks we will also be sending a press release to your local newspaper if you and a parent are willing to give us permission to do so.

Congratulations to you and your parents. We encourage you to keep writing!