Honorable Mention
Letters About Literature 2003
Level I

December 6, 2002

Dear Jerry Spinelli,

When my teacher first suggested your book I was very reluctant to open it. Nowhere in the review on the back of the book did it talk about ninjas fighting robots, or wizards flying on broomsticks. After I read the first few chapters, however, I couldn't put it down.

The dictionary defines impossible as something that is incapable of being or occurring. Wringer got my attention immediately because of the great way you described the horrible, impossible problems that Palmer faced. I enjoyed Wringer mostly because of how Palmer got through these impossible problems throughout the story.

Often, we get so sucked up in our own affairs that we never stop to think about others and that their problems are probably much worse than our own. Like Palmer, the problems can be a mere pigeon in your room, or the fact that kids in Afghanistan would be lucky to have that pigeon raw, for dinner. It horrifies me that children in America think their problem is that they don't have their own cell phones, when children in Iraq don't even have a shirt to put a cell phone in. Your book made me think about all the different problems people all over the world have and how they overcome them, even when it seems impossible.

Sincerely,

Daniel Stoops

Daniel Stoops
6th Grade
Dzantik'i Heeni Middle School, Juneau
Teacher: D. Ryall