Students wrote a letter to an author whose book has had great significance for them.

AUGUSTA – The Maine Humanities Council announces that Robert Langton, a seventh-grader at the Center for Teaching and Learning in Edgecomb and the first-place winner from Maine, was one of the top six in the nation in the Level II division of the Letters About Literature contest. He competed with 11,500 entrants in Level II from throughout the country.

This is the third year that the Maine Center for the Book, the programming arm of the Maine Humanities Council, has run the national Letters About Literature contest in Maine.

All participating students wrote a letter to an author whose book has had great significance for them. Letters About Literature is a national program of the Center for the Book of the Library of Congress.

Cory Boissonneault, a sixth-grader at Biddeford Middle School, won the Level I division.

The winner of Maine’s Level III was Nate Farnsworth, a 10th-grader from Lewiston High School who wrote an original letter to Olaf Stapleton in response to “Last and First Men.” His teacher, Richard Townsend, described Farnsworth as “a marvelous science fiction writer, a top grade student and a fascinating thinker.”

The judges awarded second place in Level I to Colleen Murphy, a fourth-grader at Poland Community School, who wrote her letter to E.B. White about “Charlotte’s Web.” Her teacher is Amy Morgan.

Second place for Level II went to Hattie Brown, eighth-grader at Biddeford Middle School. Moira Yoe, a ninth-grader at North Yarmouth Academy, won second place in the Level III division.

Honorable mentions went to the following Leve I area students: Lydia Drown, grade six, Leeds Central School; Harley Lebel, grade four, Poland Community School; Ben Morse, grade five, Kingfield Elementary School.

Level III: Meagan Marcoux, grade 11, Lewiston High School; Seth Jani, grade nine, Rangeley Regional Lakes School.