"My husband and I are both Beatles fans," Joan Havard explained. "It's very much a poetic song and beautiful melody with sea-like qualities ... I think that's her."

Julia—the "ocean child" with "seashell eyes, windy smile" and "hair of floating sky"—is now an eighth-grader at Harker School who recently won a statewide literature competition and took a lead role in the school's dance production.

On May 29, the Saratoga resident will travel to Sacramento to receive her first-place prize in the California's Letters About Literature 2003 contest. The entries were letters written by students to authors about works that had changed their lives; in Havard's case, the letter was to deceased poet Pablo Neruda on his Odes to Common Things.

Originally written as a school assignment, Julia said, the letter "came easier than most essays. It was a personal response, so we were allowed to be poetic."

Havard says she first read Neruda a few years ago and became "obsessed" with his work. "Ode to Common Things," she said, "made me look around me differently."

"It was as if I had been looking at life through a dark, shaded window, and as soon as I read your poems, it turned to stained glass and glowed with rainbows," Havard wrote. "You taught me, your poems taught me that everything has a spirit and a reason. We must recognize it or the beauty of the planet will fade along with the people who love it ... I wanted to feel the connection of music and earth and man that you expressed; I wanted to rewrite your poetry with my music. Your poems helped me weave my way into this world and find my place, a dome of centered peace in the midst of all the chaos."

"She reads through the eyes of a poet," said Harker English teacher Sylvia Harp. "It's just a very beautiful and unique way of looking at life. It's a very innovative letter."

Harp said Havard's passion for life is evident in the way she writes, as is her personal style. "She does things with a particular kind of grace," Harp said.

Natalie Cole, director of the California Center for the Book, did an initial read of Havard's entry. "I thought it was a very evocative and thoughtful letter," Cole said.

Havard's letter was "very real, very personal," Cole said, and showed a "sophisticated and very alive" style of writing.

A judging panel of librarians, writers and newspaper columnists awarded Havard first prize in the middle school category.

"I had no idea. It was an assignment for school, so I was just doing an assignment. It was really fun to do, though," Havard said.

As noteworthy as Havard's talent for writing are her accomplishments in dance and fencing.

This year she was the lead dancer and scriptwriter in Harker's dance production and has taken roles of various sizes in school and regional dance shows. She continues to take ballet and participates in social dance classes.

"She's competent in ballet, modern dance and jazz. She's quite expressive as a performer," said Laura Rae, Harker dance program director. "I think that might come from an understanding of literature."

Havard has also been fencing for three years, winning two bronze medals in the Junior Women's Saber Bay Cup tournament. Fencing is similar to dance, Havard says. "Once you've figured out what's going on, it's kind of graceful in its own way."

Christopher Lowman, Havard's fencing teammate and social dance partner, says she is versatile with the different forms of fencing. "She is very graceful at fencing. And competitive," said Lowman, a freshmen at Gunn High School. Because Havard has fun with dance and fencing, "it's very easy to have fun as well, and she moves very precisely," Lowman said.

On top of those activities, Havard is active in Harker's multicultural program, spirit and service clubs and Future Problem Solvers, in addition to volunteering at the nursery for Saratoga Federated Church.

"I want to get ahead. I really want to go to Stanford," Havard said. "I want to be a doctor so I can help people."

Academic and career goals are not, however, what drives her to do what she does. "I'm really interested in fencing, I'm interested in dance, and I really like different kinds of things," Havard said.

And with a schedule busier than that of most adults, that's evidently true.