MILTON MILLS - What a challenge the Friends of the Milton Free Public Library had to pronounce a winner of the 2019 Middle School Fan Fiction Contest!
In the end, the Friends declared both 8th grader Jackson Jacobs and 7th grader Emma Richards co-winners!
Both students chose to reimagine S.E. Hinton's novel "The Outsiders" in very different ways. Mr. Jacobs chose to alter the ending so that one had to imagine what came next. One Friend noted that using this device was a mature way of leaving the reader wanting more. Ms. Richards rescued characters Ponyboy, Soda Pop, and Darry before the final fight and they were able to live happily, far away from the challenges they had before.
8th grader Liam Jackson came in third place. Liam wrote a long, descriptive narrative from the perspective of a character in Rick Riordan's "The Red Pyramid".
Betsy Baker is the head librarian at MFPL.