Students honored for Letters on Literature

SAUGUS – Seven sixth-graders from the Belmonte Middle School were recently honored by the Massachusetts Letters on Literature writing contest for letters they wrote to authors.Six students: Shianna Silva, Nina Vrankic, Arianna Quagenti, Nicholas Ferrara, Sean Talbot and Domenic Cieri were named semifinalists while Todd Tringale was named a finalist and will be honored at the State House.The students are a part of Joy McCauley and Jessica Manuel?s English classes.?They were told at the beginning of the year to choose a novel that had won a Newbury Honor Award ? and instead of a typical summary book report, they wrote a letter to the author of that novel,” said Manuel. “For the last several years, Mrs. McCauley and I have been entering those letters into a competition ? These seven kids were honored out of I think 3,400 letters that were received.McCauley said the students wrote to the authors about how they “connected” to the book or how the book “took them someplace they?d never been before.”Tringale was named a finalist for his letter to Gary Paulsen, author of Hatchet.In his letter, Tringale said he suffered from health problems and related to the main character because they both had “huge obstacles to overcome.” Tringale said it was his determination not to give up and positive thoughts that helped him get through it.?Brian also believed in himself and pushed himself to survive,” he said. “Even though my illness and Brian being stranded on an island are two different things, I feel like I had a strong connection to him because we both had very scary things happen to us and we were able to conquer them because of our positive attitudes.”After reading Princess Academy by Shannon Hale, Quagenti said she was inspired by the main character, who stood up to a bully.?In the book she?s getting bullied a lot ?” she said. “She stood up to them. That inspired me to stand up to a bully that I was being bullied by. She was being really mean to me about how I dress and what I liked to do. She even started picking on my sister.”Quagenti said she wanted to put a stop to it but didn?t know how, until she finished the book.?I just stood up to her and told her that if she wasn?t going to be my friend then she should just get out of my life and she never talked to me again,” said Quagenti.Vrankic wrote a letter to Eleanor Estes, author of Ginger Pye, because she said there?s a character in the book who “doesn?t appreciate what he has.”?I know I?m like that,” she said. “I don?t really know what I have until I don?t have it anymore. It was kind of obvious when I was reading it. I try to appreciate what I have more now.”Silva wrote to Jerry Spinelli, who wrote the book Wringer. Silva said she connected to the book because she once tried changing friends.?In the book there?s a kid named Palmer and he changes friends to be friends with the cool group,” said Silva. “I kind of did that a long time ago. He had no connections with them, and I had no similarities with them either. Later on in the book he realized they weren?t the right group for him.”Silva said she too came to that realization and went back to her old group of friends.McCauley said the students were all given certificates for their letters while Tringale will visit the State House on May 14.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].