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Texas Center for the Book
Letters About Literature Essay Contest 2006
Level One Winner
Emily Devereaux
O. Henry Middle School, Austin
Dear C.S. Lewis,
How do you mend a broken soul? Especially one that has been told they were fat, ugly, stupid and totally weird. Well that used to be me before I read your series.
I used to be your everyday average school kid. I never thought of a reason to try my hardest. I was always put down and I could not defend myself. Everyone at my school was like plastic Barbie dolls. A piece of plastic that has a fake painted on smile that covers their true feelings. Every day I felt like I was awaiting my execution just waiting to get it over with. That's when I started reading the Chronicles of Narnia. I am usually not the person to get into a book right away, but when I started reading the Chronicles of Narnia, it was like a switch in my head was flicked on and I immediately became tuned in.
I felt a lot like Lucy in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. She had found a great discovery, but no one would believe her no matter how hard she tried to persuade them. That was exactly how I felt, a nobody.
However as I went on in the book I found out how brave Lucy was becoming. So I started to think that maybe, just maybe I could be brave and confident too. Even though no one believed her in the beginning, at the end her courage made her a queen, and she became important. She started out as nobody and she became somebody.
After I read the books, I became a little bit more confident, and stitches of happiness and love began to puncture and make their way through my town up soul. I began to smile more, and my eyes no longer looked down as I passed my peers. I actually started to make some friends. Just like Lucy I came from being nobody to being somebody.
Sincerely yours,
Emily Devereaux
Age 11