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June 12, 2009

A library close to his heart

Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Last updated: Tuesday June 9, 2009, 9:07 PM
BY DEENA YELLIN
NorthJersey.com

Joshua Tiprigan, a junior at Northern Valley Regional High School in Old Tappan, has won a national essay contest and with it the right to select a library for a $10,000 award. He's chosen the Northvale Public Library, in memory of his late mother.

Joshua's essay about Rudyard Kipling's poem "If" was awarded the highest recognition by the Library of Congress and the New Jersey Center for the Book: first place in the Letters About Literature contest.

He was named one of two national first-place winners for grades 9 through 12. Joshua opted to contribute it to Northvale Public Library because his mother, Alma, a great lover of books, had worked there as a volunteer. She died of cancer a little more than a year ago.

Joshua also won a $500 Target gift card. He modestly says that he was shocked when he won. But his teacher, Brian Hanson-Harding, says he wasn't surprised at all.

"He's a very sincere reader and very curious. He has ability. He wrote a heartfelt story, about how reading for him is keeping a piece of his mother," Hanson-Harding said.

The teacher must be doing something right: His class had a first-place national winner, a second-place state winner and eight other students who received honorable mentions.

More than 150,000 essays are submitted to the contest from throughout the country.

Joshua, along with other state essay winners, will be honored by the New Jersey Center for the Book at a special ceremony at 2:30 p.m. Thursday at Winants Hall on the College Avenue campus of Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

E-mail: yellin@northjersey.com

Posted by tumulty at June 12, 2009 11:41 AM

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