Honoring the best works for children: Scholastic contest winners.

Here are the winners of Scholastic's "Reading for the Love of It Contest", which appeared in the September-October 2004 Black Issues Book Review. Parents and guardians were encouraged to have their "favorite reader" select books from Scholastic by award-winning authors: Edwidge Danticat, Leo and Diane Dillon, Nikki Grimes, Virginia Hamilton, Wade Hudson, Patricia C. McKissack and Fredrick L. McKissack, Walter Dean Myers, Sharon Robinson and Pain Munoz Ryan.

The winners are 8th graders, D'Marcus Butler, Rafique Freeman, Erik Marshall and Latrese Dean of Atlanta's Ralph Johnson Bunche Middle School; Janet Garcia, 15, of Harlem and sophomore at the Bronx High School of Science; Jalal Kane, 13, of Mary Help of Christian Elementary School in Manhattan; Kuwan Christian, 12, of Harlem; Jahlil Ptahsen-Shabazz, 10, of Elmsford, New York,--both attend The Learning Tree Elementary School in the Bronx, New York; Christian Smith, 10, of PS 124 in Queens; Nia Oden, 12, of the Lenox Academy, Brooklyn, New York.

Parents influence each winners' love of reading. For example, Christian Smith says, "My father is always able to help me with my school projects, and when I ask him how he knows so much, he says it's because he reads. I liked the book Powerful Words because it shows black people fighting for my freedom."

Jahlil Ptahsen-Shabazz says, "My lather inspired me to love reading because he reads a lot and that's why he is a successful teacher in college. They call him Dr. Shabazz. I like the Jackie Robinson book Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed the Worm because he didn't give up his dream. He was tough and good at everything he tried."

Jalal Kane, on Promises to Keep, says, "it taught me about Jackie Robinson on the field, as a businessman and as a family person. I also learned how he tricked the Dodgers when they thought they could trade him to The New York Giants (baseball team)." Jalal credits his mother for building his love for reading. "When I was eight," he added, "I was going to public school where a teacher told me I was reading too much. My morn took me out and put me in private school. I haven't stopped reading ever since."

D'Marcus Buffer says, "When I read a book, I don't see myself as a person looking at words on paper. I am right there in the story watching the plot unfold firsthand, each and every person in the story is real to me."

Kuwan Christian says, "When Marian Sang showed the value of a supportive family. "Everyone encouraged her, there was no jealousy."

Nia Oden concludes, "My parents and grandmother inspire me to read, because I always see them reading."

Learn more of each winner's love of reading on the Web site www.bibookreview.com.