Book center names winners

The Utah Center for the Book at the Salt Lake City Library has announced winners for the 2006 Letters About Literature contest.

To enter, readers wrote a personal letter to an author, living or dead, from any genre, fiction or nonfiction, contemporary or classic, explaining how that author's work changed the student's way of thinking about the world or themselves. There were three competition levels: Level I for children in grades 4 through 6; Level 2 for grades 7 and 8, and Level 3, grades 9-12.

A ceremony celebrated the winners at the Main Library Saturday. The winners, the books they chose, their schools their hometowns are:

Level 1: grades 4-6, Devan Betts, first place, "The Giver," Longview Elementary, Murray; Sarah MacDonald, honorable mention, "Charlie's Monument," Longview Elementary, Murray; Mason McMillan, honorable mention, "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," Longview Elementary, Murray.

Level 2: grades 7-8: Breanne Anderson, first place, "Mira, Mirror," Lehi Junior High School, Lehi; Andrew Cook, honorable mention, "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," Indian Hills Middle School, Sandy; Samuel Hopkins, honorable mention, "Shadow of the Hegemon," Indian Hills Middle School, Sandy.

Level 3: grades 9-12: Lexie Labertew, first place, "Second Star to the Right," Park City; Becca Robison, honorable mention, "To Space and Back," Fairfield Junior High, Layton.