A Gilman School junior and a sixth-grader from Southern Maryland have won top honors in the statewide "Letters About Literature" contest, sponsored by the Maryland Center for the Book at the Howard County Library.

About 700 students entered the contest, which required writing a letter to the author -- living or dead -- of a book, poem or essay that changed their life.

Gilman's Marcus Wang, who lives in Cockeysville, won for his letter to Hollywood martial arts master Jackie Chan, author of "I Am Jackie Chan." Wang, who wrote of the academic pressures "heaped upon my shoulders" in his school's competitive atmosphere, said Chan's story gave him a "surge of confidence and energy."

Kevin Fallon, who lives in Prince Frederick and attends Plum Point Middle School in Huntingtown, Calvert County, was selected for his letter to Emily Cheney Neville, author of "It's Like This, Cat."

Kevin wrote that he was inspired by the way the main character, Dave, unloaded his troubles on a cat who never talked back or got bored, but simply listened. After reading the book, he said, he began to unburden himself by talking to his 2-year-old brother.

Each won $100 and is eligible for prizes in the national competition sponsored by the Center for the Book at the Library of Congress and Weekly Reader Corp.

Runners-up in Maryland's Level I competition, for grades four to seven, were all from Montgomery County: Maris Whitman Findlay, a sixth-grader at Chevy Chase Elementary; William Hamilton Freeman Jr., sixth grade, Briggs Chaney Middle School in Silver Spring; and Teresa Ingraham, in the fourth grade at South Lake Elementary in Gaithersburg.

Runners-up in Level II, for the higher grades, were Mia Brown of Parkville, a freshman at Baltimore County's Carver Center of Arts and Technology; and Erin Podolny and Andrea Alexander, both of Columbia and juniors at Howard County's Hammond High School.