SeDoMoCha sixth-grader is a semifinalist in Letters About Literature contest

By Stuart Hedstrom
Staff Writer

DOVER-FOXCROFT — An English/Language Arts unit on letter writing turned out to be more than just a lesson for one sixth-grader as a letter she addressed to an author earned her semifinalist honors in the state level Letters About Literature contest. Grace Carlson’s letter to “Almost Home” author Joan Bauer was chosen as one of 47 semifinal pieces out of approximately 800 submissions from throughout Maine in the grade 4-6 division of the competition.

Observer photo/Stuart Hedstrom

LETTER-WRITING HONOR — SeDoMoCha Middle School sixth-grader Grace Carlson is a semifinalist in the state level Letters About Literature contest. Carlson’s letter to “Almost Home” author Joan Bauer was one of 47 chosen from a field of about 800 submissions written by grade 4-6 students across Maine.

“Back in January the entire sixth grade wrote persuasive letters to authors,” SeDoMoCha Middle School grade 6 English/Language Arts teacher Alexis Coleman said. She said each of the over 70 sixth-graders composed a letter telling the author how their novel changed the students’ view of themselves or the world.

“I didn’t tell them what to pick, it’s one of their independent reading books,” Coleman said.

Carlson said in her letter she told Bauer how she learned “just because someone is different you don’t have to judge them.” Carlson said the grandfather of the protagonist of “Almost Home” dies and Carlson said she also has lost her grandfather.

The letter was about a page long, and Carlson said she worked on her composition for three or four class periods before mailing it to Bauer at her home in New York state. The author wrote back and “she thanked me for writing her a letter and she said she was glad it influenced me,” Carlson said.

Coleman, who has had her students participate in the Letters About Literature contest since coming to SeDoMoCha Middle School in 2012, submitted this year’s letters to the Maine Humanities Council. “Every year a student has placed as a semifinalist,” Coleman said with Carlson as this year’s honoree.

The names of the 47 Maine semifinalists will be published by the contest organizers and a winner will be announced in several weeks. State winners qualify for a national-level competition through the Library of Congress.