Diana Chien, Winner Level III Grades 9-12

Letter to Patricia A. McKillip, author of Winter Rose

Dear Patricia A. McKillip,

The first time I read Winter Rose, I started a few hours after dinnertime, around 10 o'clock. While I read, I was as trapped by your words as Rois Melior had been by the unending spell of Winter's Queen. When I finished, it was a quarter past three in the morning, and I hadn't stopped reading once, afraid that a single move from where I curled in my chair might shatter the spell. And before I managed to quite recall myself to myself and remember that it was high summer back in my world, I looked out the window and wondered with honest confusion where the snow had gone.

Every time I have had the chance to re-read your book, my experience with its magic has been nearly the same as that first glimpse of bewildering beauty. Winter Rose seems to hold an enchanted world as perfect and secret as if it had been enclosed in crystal, there for me to see and savor anytime I wish. As life becomes increasingly hectic and challenging, I find myself taking comfort again and again in the hidden beauties of that world.

But not only has Winter Rose become my refuge from the turbulence of life. The image of Rois Melior, that footloose daughter of the forest, has continued to haunt and inspire me from the moment I first met her, as she drank from a rose-covered well in the heart of the wood. With her love of nature's secrets and the quiet magic in them, she is a combination of many of the things I love best in myself, and the girl - woman - I want to be. To me she is an emblem of both the cares and responsibilities of adulthood, and of childhood's enduring awe at that which is sweet and beautiful. Her steadfast love and devotion to those she holds dearest, her strength and determination, and perhaps most of all, her inexhaustible sense of wonder at every glimmer of the mysteries of nature; all remain in my heart as inspirations to me as I grow and change.

I want to find the nameless wonders in rich falls of summer light, the faces of the riders in the autumn wind, the fair queen with winter's frozen eyes. I want to relish every gentle, green moment of spring, suck the nectar from honeysuckles, grow a wild garden, love and be loved. I want to run barefoot through a forest and listen to old tales by a fireside. And wherever life may take me, I shall always hope to find a well hiding behind the brier roses.

Sincerely,

Diana Chien

Holmdel High School, Holmdel, NJ