Earlier this summer, the Friends of the Buda Library and the Hays Free Press partnered to sponsor the first Summer Essay Contest for Young Writers to provide an opportunity for young library patrons to flex their literary muscles. A total of 20 submissions were received from local kids writing on the theme of “What the Library Means to Me”, “My Favorite Activity at the Library” or “The Future of Libraries”. A panel of five judges was charged with the difficult task of choosing the top three winning essays in each age group. These essayists were awarded cash prizes at awards ceremonies last week and the first place essays won publication in the Hays Free Press.
All Essay Contest Winners:
Age 9 to 13:
First: Noel Mueller
Second: Faith Broddrick
Third: Robbie Woodworth
Honorable Mention: Dallin Bedwell, Arianna Britt, Susie Mena, Kevin Cervenka, Thomas Farrell, Kevin Gonzalez, Emma Jackson, Joshua C. Hall
Age 14 to 18:
First: Robert Cowan
Second: Dannie Trader
Third: Minerva Hernandez
Honorable Mention: Mariah Gaitan, Allison Foster, Sarah Sellstrom, Sean Farrell, Sarah Farrell, Sara Kafka
First Place in the 9- to 13-year-old group:
What the library means to me
If someone was to ask me what a library was I would tell them it’s a wonderful place filled with magic and adventure.
I love the library! I have moved over 8 times and each time I move there is always a library and it always feels like my home. The Librarians always have a warm smile and welcome you with a kind voice. If there were no more libraries I would feel like someone has taken away my home and family.
I always feel safe in a library My life was saved by a library. When I was really little a tornado came through our town and my mom and I were in the library. The library was sturdy enough to stand up, so if it was not for that library I may not have been here today.
I feel like the library is a way to escape from the real world and go in to another world. I can take a walk through the park, dance in a rain storm, ride a horse through mountains while reading a book in the library. I love to go in the library and sit and read for hours. I can travel the world without moving one inch. I could be in India one day and Japan the next.
If I could live in any building I would chose to live in a library. I would love to live in a library where I could read as many books as I pleased. I would always feel I have a wonderful friend nearby. Whenever I felt sad or lonely I could always have a book to cheer me up. I could escape to another world where my Prince Charming could be or where there is a lovely beach just waiting for me. All I have to do is open up a book and begin again. It is all there waiting for me at the library.
Author’s name: Hana Noel Mueller
Parents’ names: Frank & Diane Mueller
First Place in the 14- to 18-year-old group
Bifröst
The Library is Bifröst, the rainbow bridge in Norse mythology. It’s the rope swing to Terabithia, the wardrobe to Narnia. In other words it’s a portal, a portal that thousands use every day to escape this world and travel to the world of words. The words from all the pages of all the books in the library paint pictures, inviting you to look at them. You can judge them, live in them, treasure them, or hate them.
You can run to the fiction section and crack open Lord of the Rings, all of a sudden you are beside Frodo preparing to throw the ring into the fires of Mount Doom. You can then turn to science fiction and join Ender in destroying the buggers, or disappear into a book as in Inkheart. Reach out and grab a book by George Orwell or Aldous Huxley, see how the world has become in their prophesying books. Scare yourself with a little bit of Stephen King. Then you can go to the non-fiction section and learn about dendrology, or birds, or the effects of submarines in World War II. In the library thousands of worlds come together in a beautiful way, you are the ruler, you can watch each world grow from a dead desert to a meadow full of life. You can watch a character change from good, to evil. You can see the blurred lines between right and wrong.
If that isn’t enough there is still more, the library has classes that you can learn from. I know one class that has been extremely helpful to me was the organic gardening class, now I have my own garden and can’t wait to see what it will produce. The books on tape are perfect for long trips; they keep you entertained and awake during the long drives. I still remember listening to the entire Peter and the Starcatchers series four years ago. The computers have limitless information which is available to you all the time.
Who knew that ink and paper could do so much for people, and when you house that much of it together, it’s even better. Libraries can be a lot of things to different people but to me the library is my escape, when this world frustrates me, angers me, or bores me I can go join another world. In that world so many things could happen, people aren’t bound by laws of gravity, or logic and reasoning.
Author’s Name: Robert Cowan
Parent’s Name: Kellie Cowan
A special thank you to each member of the Essay Judging Committee: Doris McWhorter, Brenda Stewart, Jerry Wermund, Wendy North and Todd Rugge.
