Students recognized in state contest

Two Blaine High School students were recognized for their writing skills in a statewide contest.

Freshman Morgan Zaccheo was selected as a semifinalist in the Letters About Literature contest, while freshman Nicole Moreva-Montoya (now at Mount Baker High School) was selected as an honorable mention and invited to attend the awards ceremony on May 22 at the capitol building in Olympia.

The Letters About Literature contest encourages young readers to read a book and write a letter to the author about how the book changed their view of the world or themselves. Students can write about works of fiction, nonfiction or poetry. Letter writers compete at three levels; level 1 is grades 4-6, level 2 is grades 7-8 and level 3 is grades 9-12. State judges select the top letter writer in each level and those three letters advance to a national competition.

The letters written by Zaccheo and Moreva-Montoya were part of an assignment in Christine St. Pierre’s 9th grade English class. Zaccheo wrote a letter to Suzanne Collins after reading The Hunger Games, while Moreva-Montoya wrote a letter to Laini Taylor after reading Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

The judges for level 3 were James Rosenzweig, assistant professor and education librarian at Eastern Washington University Libraries, Claire Sandoval-Peck, a recent masters of librarianship graduate and public library aide and Sharma Shields, an author in Spokane.

The contest was managed by the Washington Center for the Book (WCB), a partnership between the Seattle Public Library and the Washington State Library which was formed in 2017. The mission of the WCB is to promote literacy and a love of books.