Nationwide, approximately 54,000 students entered the 2009 Letters About Literature contest.

There were 1,716 entries from students in Iowa.
603 from students in grades 4 through 6 (Level I)
802 from students in grades 7 and 8 (Level II)
311 from students in grades 9 through 12 (Level III)

The Letters About Literature national office read all 55,000 plus entries and returned the top letters to each state.  In Iowa there were 27 finalists at Level I, 29 at Level II, and 21 at Level III.  There were 17 semifinalists at Level I, 26 at Level II and 7 at Level III.

These letters are added to the Web site as submitted by the student, except we have included only the school and/or town instead of the complete return address.

The 2009 Iowa winner at each level received a cash prize of $50 plus a $50 Target GiftCard and advanced for national judging.  The students who placed second and third at each level received a $50 cash prize and the three honorable mentions received $25.

At the national level, two winners plus four honorable mentions were selected for each competition level.