On August 16, The New York Public Library will be honoring three young readers who participated in our Summer Reading Challenge. For this year's challenge, patrons between ages 6-18 were asked to write an essay about a favorite book and how it impacted them. More than 70 essays were received, and three grand prize winners were chosen! The winners will take a bow on the field at Yankee Stadium, meet a player, and and stick around to watch the game with their families.

This year's winners are:

• Suleika Sandi, age 9, from South Beach Library
• Bailey Grollman, age 11, from Riverside Library
• Juan Jose Lopez Hernandez, age 15, from Grand Concourse Library

This year's honorable mentions are:

• Hana Greenberg, age 11, from Washington Heights Library
• Samuel Hacker, age 11, from Webster Library

Read the winning essays below, and stay tuned for the release of the next NYPL Zine, which will feature the essay winners along with other notable essays submitted by our talented young patrons.

Congratulations to the winners of the 2018 Summer Reading Essay Contest!

Suleika Sandi, age 9, from South Beach Library

In this essay you will find information about my favorite book this summer.  The name of the book is Anne of Green Gables, and the author is L. M. Montgomery.  In the following essay, I will explain what this book means to me, and how reading can be inspiring, relaxing and entertaining. So, let’s get started!

In the novel Anne of Green Gables, there’s a story about a girl named Ann with an E, and how she deals with a lot of problems!

One of the first milestones for Anne is when she makes a new friend.  This was not easy and she overcame the challenges, but things drastically changed when Anne accidentally intoxicated her new friend.  Now she must prove that she’s worthy of her new best friend!

One reason how reading this story can be inspiring to everyone is that it can make people work a little harder.  This book means a lot to me because it teaches me not to give up.  For example, in the novel Anne didn’t give up.  She helped Diana’s sister when no one else was able to. She also studied hard to be the best even when it was tough.

Another reason why this book means so much to me is because it taught me to relax and stay cool while working on something challenging.  In Anne of Green Gables there was name calling and fighting but Anne was able to make peace and work on her mistake.  This is not an easy thing to do and it was extremely difficult for her. Anne is such an inspiration and a daredevil orphan. She’s a good person with a great heart.

My third reason for what this book means to me is also important because it teaches us to be nice and friendly.  This can help you in real life, at home, in school, and everywhere.  Being nice can help you, your friends, people and their families.  If you are nice you could get rewards such as gifts, or make new friends!

In conclusion, I hope you see how inspirational this book is.  It means a lot because it teaches me as I read it.  In my opinion, this is the best book, and I would recommend it to kids five and up! 

Books can be entertaining and inspiring to people.  Who knows, maybe you’ll be inspired too!

Bailey Grollman, age 11, Riverside Library

Close your eyes. Imagine losing everything that you ever owned, your family, your friends. Picture arriving in a new country, not speaking a word of their language, not knowing a clue about where your fate lies.

It's hard to believe that anyone could experience that. Sadly hundreds of thousands of kids experience many tragedies that we could scarcely imagine. The book Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate, is about an African refugee named Kek who travels to America. Kek is only 11 years old. He lost his father and brother in a war, and he doesn't have the faintest idea where his mother is.

The reason why I chose this book is because Kek has a powerful trait that many of us struggle to show. This trait is compassion. For example, Kek walked into a grocery store and he saw all the delicious food. Pause for a moment. If you hadn't eaten a sufficient meal for months and saw all of that food what would you do? You would probably buy all the stores supply. On the other hand, Kek said, “My eyes too full of this place with answers to prayers on every shelf”. He means that all of the food that Africa was praying for could easily be bought in America, and that's not fair. And then Kek started crying. Not tears of joy, but tears of compassion for all of the refugees who are still in Africa getting morsels of food.

Kek does not only show compassion there. He demonstrates compassion in other instances as well. For example, as you probably know, cows are very sacred in Africa. Kek sees a cow whose owner can’t care for her any more. Kek bonds with the cow and pulls her all the way to the zoo where she can thrive.

Another trait that Kek has is optimism. Optimism is also a hard trait to exhibit. Optimism is the cure for feeling down. And Kek can show it. Kek’s aunt says, “Kek finds sun when the sky is dark.” It makes me cry tears of joy to see that Kek, a boy who lost his family, can still think positively about the world. Kek shows optimism when he assumes that his mom will come to America. He demonstrates this by saying things like, “my mom will like this” and “I can't wait for my mom to see this”.

We all think that we are in the worst situations when we miss a show, or don’t make the basketball team. But really there are far worse situations than that. It’s up to us to deal with the situation in the right way. An example is, when we lose a contest we could cry and be upset. However we also can think “at least I tried”, or show compassion and congratulate the winner. So the next time that you think that you are in the worst situation, think of Kek. As Kek says “life changes so you must hope”.

It takes a stupendous heart to put others before you. This book means to me that even in though we are suffering it doesn't mean that we can’t help others. I also learned to appreciate what we have because there's always someone who is suffering more.

In conclusion, I want the reader of this article to know that, compassion and optimism are the answers to many of our problems. Imagine what this world can be if we were all optimistic and compassionate.

Here are some ways to be kind like Kek:

1. You can be compassionate and think of others who don't have as much as you before you think of yourself. 
2. You can demonstrate an act of kindness, not for the reward but for the sake of kindness.
3. You can go up to someone that you haven't really gotten to know before, and befriend them.
4. You can help a stranger in need. You can volunteer to do community service. 
5. You can go up to a friend in need and help them. You can include your friend if they are feeling lonely. 
6. You can ask someone about their day, or ask someone, “What do you want to do?”
7. You can say “hi” or “thank you,” or hold the door for someone.

As you have probably noticed this book means a great deal to me. This book makes me understand that our suffering does not have to dictate our attitude towards life, if we choose to be a good person.

I challenge you to do one act of compassion and pass on the challenge. So we can all be compassionate people like Kek. Kek says that “Today, tomorrow, sooner or later, you will meet someone who is lost, just as you yourself have been lost, and as you will be lost again someday. And when that happens it is your duty to say ‘I have been lost too. Let me help you find your way home’.”

*Winning this contest would mean a lot to me because when I grow up I want to be the first woman pitcher in Major League Baseball. And my birthday is coming up as well. Thank you for reading my article.

Juan Jose Lopez Hernandez, age 15, Grand Concourse Library

As a teen, discovering a book you love, not just like, is a challenge. Recently, I discovered Chulito, a novel by Charles Rice-Gonzales. Told from the perspective of Chulito who is the main character, the book focuses on the struggles in Chulito's life. These struggles include exploring his sexuality, the prejudicial and homophobic opinions of the people in his neighborhood, and remaining friends with his childhood best friend whom he begins to express mutual romantic and erotic feelings for. Chulito lives in a close-minded neighborhood in the Bronx with his mother. On top of his apartment lives his childhood best friend, Carlos, whom he grows apart from since everyone started labeling him as a homosexual. Chulito instead of finishing high school and making his mother proud took the wrong turn in life and became a drug messenger for Kamikaze, a well-known and liked drug dealer. There are many reasons why I love this book and some of these reasons include the hope that it gives to the LGBTQ members and allies about being themselves and being accepted and the realism in the story.

In the book, Charles-Rice Gonzales portrays Chulito and Carlo's relationship as just friends. But as we continue reading deeper in the book, we find out that Carlos didn’t just want to be Chulito’s friend, he wanted something more. Not focusing on the traditional boy and girl relationship, rather a more male-male romance story is something I like about this book. It’s extraordinary because it’s non-traditional, it opens the perspective of new characters and opens the door to a different side of a macho Puerto Rican. Because Chulito can describe his relationship with Carlos as forbidden, it adds suspense to the story because I want both characters to be together, however, the events that occur in the book make it difficult for both. That's why when Carlos introduces Chulito to The Village in Manhattan, it brought me hope because the village is introduced as a place where people can be whom they want and where LGBTQ members have a community where they support each other and are out in the open. As Chulito described it, after leaving the Pier in Manhattan, he didn’t want to return back to the Bronx because he would felt like he was trapped not being able to be himself and wouldn’t be able to spend time with Carlos. With that being said, we can infer that Chulito liked the pier because it gave him hope of what could happen between him and Carlos. The hope that both Carlos and Chulito have is something I like about the book because to me, it means that somewhere out there, there's a place where people can freely express themselves without feeling judged. And not to spoil the book but the book ends with the lines “Chulito danced because it was alright and he felt it.” This is referring to Chulito finally coming out to the people that matter and being accepted by some of them and possibly escaping the drug life. And because the book ended like this, it made me feel like can get better if you just stay true to yourself and others.

Another reason I like this book is that it has realism. The setting of this book is in Hunts Point Bronx and sometimes Manhattan. And the detailed description given by Chulito in the book about the places and events that were occurring at the time seem very realistic. I live in the Bronx and because the setting is in the Bronx, I can feel more relatable to the characters and it makes me more understanding of how the setting affects the development of the story. In addition, the emotions expressed by the characters if I’d written it. It makes me feel like I am present at the time and can comprehend those emotions.

Finding books as good as Chulito can be a challenge, but reading them can be rewarding. And to me, reading Chulito was very rewarding: it gave me hope that life can get better, it taught me some life lessons and made me feel as if I was Chulito. These are some of the reasons why I like Chulito and how the book made me feel. I would encourage you to read it.

Hana Greenberg, age 11, Washington Heights Library (Honorable Mention)

I love reading. It is my favorite thing to do in the world. I have read lots of books over the years. All of the books on my bookshelf are dog-eared and the title pages are creased because I have flipped the pages so much. Amongst all my books that I have read, All Four Stars by Tara Dairman really stands out and is my current favorite novel.

When I heard about this essay contest, I realized an uncanny resemblance to this book. All Four Stars is about a girl who has a dream to become a food critic and realizes her dream after entering an essay contest hosted by a major newspaper.

The protagonist, Gladys Gatsby, is an eleven-year-old food-loving gourmet who lives in the suburbs of New York. Gladys has an aunt who adores great food; Aunt Lydia always has a delicious, exotic snack in her purse as well as having a lot of food knowledge. Aunt Lydia comes to visit from Paris when Gladys is seven and Gladys gives her a tour of her neighborhood. Due to the fact that Gladys’ parents, unfortunately, do not have a taste for good food and refuse to use anything except the microwave, she has only been exposed to horrible, revolting fast-food chains. The cooking by her parents is possibly worse than the fast-food which they love (how can you spoil frozen potato puffs?!)

When Gladys shows Aunt Lydia the “restaurants” that she normally goes to with her parents, Aunt Lydia immediately buys two tickets to the city to show Gladys what real restaurants are. She takes Gladys around the city where they go to a traditional Ethiopian restaurant, a crowded kosher place, and an authentic Chinese eatery.

Gladys is shocked and awed by the delicious foods and she wonders, “How can they make this? What is so different from the food I normally eat? How can the same ingredients taste so unlike each other?” Gladys has a waterfall of questions for Aunt Lydia. Upon returning to Paris, Aunt Lydia sends Gladys a reviewing journal for the foods that she eats and a cookbook. From that day on, Gladys’ dream is to become a food critic, even though her parents are not her biggest supporters. Especially after she accidentally sets the kitchen countertop on fire while doing a secret cooking project (142 recipes in four years!) while her parents are at work. She always has to cook secretly because they never understand her passion. They are outrageously bad cooks and so she has to cook her own food to escape from the combination of under-or-overcooked, raw-or-burnt, and barely edible nourishment. Her parents serve food they have prepared as if they have cooked a full course fine, French meal or fresh Japanese sushi. Despite her enthusiasm, or because of it, her parents restrict her allowance and ban her from the kitchen for six whole months.

My mother bought me a book when I was six or seven years old called Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. After reading it I thought, “Wow! This book is so good! This is the perfect thing to do for a living: writing and making people feel happy and inspired. I want to make people feel like this after reading my books!” Since I told my parents that I wanted to be an author they have always been my biggest supporters. They have always given me fresh notebooks when I needed them and they have kept “the flame of my passion alive”(quote by Gladys Gatsby).

When Gladys’ teacher at school, Ms. Quincy, encourages everyone to enter an essay contest about “Your Future” which is hosted by one of the biggest newspapers in the world, Gladys writes an essay in the form of a letter about being a restaurant critic. Her essay gets chosen to represent the class. By accident, it finds its way onto the desk of the chief editor of the Dining section of the newspaper who mistakes Gladys for a grown-up food writer who is applying for the job of a restaurant critic and she assigns her to do a restaurant review in the city.

Gladys embarks on a journey to finish the review all while keeping her true identity anonymous. After a failed attempt to go to a restaurant to write her review, she comes up with a plan that works. In order to be selected as the one person in her class to accompany her classmate, Charissa on her birthday outing to a Broadway show and a famous dessert bistro in the city, Gladys bakes a dessert based on a recipe by the chef of the bistro. Fortunately, she impresses Charissa enough to be selected. At the bistro they order one of everything on the menu, which gives Gladys everything she needs to write a great review that gets successfully published.

All Four Stars meant a lot to me. After reading it, Gladys’ story gave me a lot of courage and I felt inspired. Gladys made me feel that even if we have big dreams, our age should not stand in our way. In the book, Ms. Quincy has always had a passion for teaching and when she was a teenager, her parents let her give lessons in the one-room schoolhouse in the small village in Togo where she came from.

I thought that it was really unfortunate that Gladys’ dreams almost got crushed by her parents just because they didn’t approve or understand what she wanted to do. Ms. Quincy thinks that having a passion or having something that you can really immerse yourself in and concentrate on is important. She also feels that it is crucial to have proper goals that you can work toward and that it is even better when you can accomplish them.

 Even though she wanted to become a food critic, Gladys wrote her very first essay about being a veterinarian. She was afraid of what her parents would say and she didn’t feel comfortable writing about her real passion. Ms. Quincy then gave Gladys a copy of the cover letter that she had written to apply for her position as a sixth grade teacher. In the letter was a series of sentences that explained her background, her passion for teaching, and her goals to make the school one of the best in the country. As a result, Gladys decides to write what she predicts would happen in her own future. That is, what she really loves to do and her absolute desire: to be a food critic.

 In conclusion, All Four Stars taught me that if you don’t have goals and the motivation to go after them, nothing will start and nothing will happen. It also taught me that you don’t need to wait to achieve what you want. My passion is writing and my intentions are to become a New York Times Bestselling author. Because of this book, I got an idea of where I should start and I could finally take my first baby step toward my goal, which was to begin publishing my graphic novels on a website called stonesoup.com.

 I recommend All Four Stars by Tara Dairman to anyone who needs encouragement or inspiration in order to grow his or her seedling of an idea into a tall, broad tree and gradually into an entire forest. For me this book gets all four stars and it was absolutely scrumptious.

Samuel Hacker, age 11, Webster Library (Honorable Mention)

Have you ever seen people do mean things to other people, because they were different? Life is hard for those people, because of prejudice. It’s hard for them to find jobs, friends, and someone who can set you in the right direction for success. People live in communities, and sometimes they don’t get along because of religion, culture, race, and beliefs. In Wishtree, a novel by Katherine Applegate, the message is about the power of community and how for someone who is struggling to fit in, how finding that one person who makes them feel accepted can be a light in a life of dark.

The Wishtree is an old red oak named Red and the story is told from his point of view.  It is a tradition in the community for people to tie their wishes to his branches.  He is a sanctuary for the people in the community that hope for better lives and he is loved by all.  He watches over the people he covers with his shade over generations.  One story follows Maeve, a kind, beloved member of the community.  Her wish is to have a child.  She finds a baby, Amadora, on her porch, and raises her as her own.  There’s just one problem – she doesn’t look like Maeve and the community doesn’t accept her.  Maeve doesn’t care a bit about her being different from her - she loves her like she would love her own daughter. “The baby’s hair was black, Maeve’s was red. The baby’s eyes were brown, Maeve’s were blue. The baby was Italian, Maeve was Irish. They were made for each other.” Despite the town’s early negative comments about Maeve raising the Italian baby, they too, grow to love Amadora. That is how a community works. That compassion that tore through the boundaries of race showed how much Maeve knew about community.

Red is good to have in a community of mean people. In another story, Samar, a Muslim girl, tries to move into the hearts of the neighborhood, but being different, it is not so simple. Some people aren’t allowed to be friends with her.  The word “leave” is scratched into Red’s bark.  The family decides to move away.  Red watches people destroy the meaning of community.  But because of Red, first one neighbor, and then another, come together to let the family know how welcome they are.  The entire community writes one wish on all of his branches: Stay. 

The final conflict in the story is about Red himself.  He has grown too old and must be cut down.  Throughout the book, we also get to know an entire community of animals who live in or on Red.  When Red is threatened, they all come together, despite their own differences, to protect and save him.  The tree cutter shows his surprise when all the animals come together to defend Red.  He said “This just don’t happen - those animals ought to be eating each other.” There were opossums, raccoons, skunks, owls, crows, cats, all sitting together. Cats eat owls, owls eat crows, and opossums, skunks and raccoons sure don’t get along.  They are just like humans—we fight wars against different people, we discriminate, we bully, but when those animals managed to be a community, it showed that people can too. 

The group of people you live with is your community, so when some people are excluded from the community’s group, what is there left to love? Racism and discrimination are still happening, but when there is community, there is love, friendship, inclusion, and happy, welcomed people. I hope that members of communities act to protect what they love when others are trying to get rid of it, like Maeve did, and Samar’s neighbors. I live in New York, so there is a lot of diversity to see. In my class there is a wide variety of kids, and looking at the friendships I see there are so many differences in race and religion, but so many inner similarities, and that’s why we’re friends. 

My aunt was adopted from Vietnam, and my uncles were adopted from Micronesia.  Another uncle is from Trinidad.  My parents don’t share the same religion.  Some of my favorite Yankees are immigrants! My life is so much better because of all the different kinds of people in it. Wishtree shows us that there is nothing to fear in differences, only more to love. 

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The New York Public Library’s Summer Reading Program is generously funded by HSBC Bank USA; New York Yankees Foundation; The Rona Jaffe Foundation; HBO®; Pine Tree Foundation of New York, Inc.; May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc.; anonymous donors; and the continuing major support of the Andreas C. Dracopoulos Family Endowment for Young Audiences. © 2018 Sesame Workshop. All Rights Reserved.