LAL is a national reading promotion program of the Center for the Book

in the Library of Congress, presented in partnership with Target and affiliate state centers for the book.

Letters About Literature
Post Office Box 609
Dallas, PA 18612
ph: 570-208-1798
lal@epix.net

Contact Us

Welcome to LAL Central - The National Office

To read the LAL Official Rules, please click here.

LAL is a national reading and writing program for young readers, sponsored by the Center for the Book in the Library of Congress. The mission of the Center is to promote lifelong literacy and libraries. LAL understands that children who read, write better; children who write, read more. But simply putting books in the hands of children does not guarantee successful reading experiences. LAL focuses on reader response and reflective writing, and in this way promotes personal relationship between the reader and the author or book.

National Project Director is Cathy Gourley, who holds a masters degree in education and who is an award-winning author of nonfiction books for young adults. To learn more about Cathy's work, please visit www.catherinegourley.com.

Assistant Project Director is Sarah Post, who holds a degree in English from Franklin and Marshall.

To contact the national office, please email

LAL@epix.net.

LAL's mailing address is:

Letters About Literature

Post Office Box 609

Dallas, PA 18612.

Cathy, Sarah, and Buddy the Cat await your letters!

Nicole Frail logs the entries into LAL Excel database.

Letters that advance to round 2 are stored in a separate room, still grouped by state in mail bins. Sarah's daughter Faye and Cathy's sheltie Cubbie Roo keep guard (below).

THANK YOU, TARGET!

FOR YOUR GENEROUS SUPPORT OF

LAL AND CHILDREN'S LITERACY.

get driving directions

Affiliate State Centers

for the Book Contacts

LAL awards both state and national prizes. Each participating state center for the book holds a state competition. All entries come to the LAL Central office in Dallas, PA. The exception is for the states of Alabama, Massaschusetts, and Tennessee. These 3 states are self-managing states, and all letters from those states should go to them directly.

Letters that advance through the first two rounds of assessment are then forwarded to the state centers. Each state center has a panel of judges who selects their state winners.

Contact your state center directly to learn more about the state prizes. Contact information below will take you to the state center's homepage and from there you should navigate to Letters About Literature. Not all of these links are "hot links." Please copy and past the address in your browser.

ALABAMA: www.alabamabookcenter.org

ALASKA: www.alaskacenterforthebook.org/09letters.html

ARIZONA: www.lib.az.us/azbook

ARKANSAS: www.asl.lib.ar.us/ACFB/Centerforthebook09.htm

CALIFORNIA: www.calbook.org

COLORADO: www.coloradohumanities.org

Teachers! Check out this LAL video from the Colorado Humanities!

CONNECTICUT: www.hplct.org/cfb.htm

DELAWARE: www.state.lib.de.us/Center_For_The_Book

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: www.dclibrary.org/dccb

FLORIDA: www.browad.org/library

GEORGIA: www.georgiacenterforthebook.org