A Fair Haven girl moved by the story of Anne Frank has won first place among sixth-graders who participated in the 2007 Monmouth County Reading Council's annual poetry contest.

Maris Krauss, age 12 and a student at Knollwood School in Fair Haven, won her award on May 10 for a poem entitled "Running," which reflects on the short, yet inspirational life of the Holocaust diarist.

The competition was sponsored by council, which is the local branch of the New Jersey Reading Association and the International Reading Association. The award ceremony took place on the stage in the children's section of the Barnes and Noble book store in Holmdel.

The winning poets read their compositions to an audience of family and friends who attended the ceremony, according to council president Michele Mackay.

"The poetry award ceremony is one of the highlights of our year," said Mackay. "It is great to see how exciting this event is to our winners, their families, and their teachers. We are so proud of all of them."

The competition challenges poets in grades one through eight to create a poem based on a book they recently read, Mackay said.

Maris' poem, which was inspired by Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl, was submitted to the council in April by Bonnie Crotty, the young poet's language arts teacher.

Maris attends Temple Beth Miriam in Elberon; she just completed her sixth year as a student in the temple's religious school and will become a bat mitzva in November. She often invites friends from her elementary school to accompany her to Sabbath services and to be guests at her family's Passover seders.

"I think religious education is helpful," Maris said. "It can bring people together instead of driving them apart. My friends love to watch us light the Sabbath candles and recite Hebrew prayers."

Maris first read Anne Frank's diary two years ago (the book was a gift from her father, Gary Krauss), and chose to reread it for the council contest.

"It was sad and upsetting to read what Anne wrote," said Maris. "But one of the things that made it so interesting was that she wrote such personal things to a person who didn't really exist." Anne addressed her diary entries to an imaginary friend she called "Kitty."

When Maris read the diary for a second time, she gained a more personal perspective, since she was then almost the same age the Dutch girl was when she began composing the diary.

"I wondered how I could ever adapt to such living conditions," said Maris, in reference to the cramped attic in which Anne, her family, and several others hid from the Nazis. "I'm so used to coming and going as I please. It was hard for me to imagine having to live under so many restrictions and with so much fear that was always all around."

Maris has always been a voracious reader and enjoys biographies, science fiction, and "realistic fiction." (Current favorites include a series of books written by Lisi Harrison.) She also likes to act and sing and has attended classes at the Count Basie Cool School in Red Bank for five years. Her taste in music includes Broadway show tunes, country music, pop, and rock.

Her interest in the music of Broadway stems from the eight Broadway productions she has attended, including Rent, A Chorus Line, and Mary Poppins.

Her first-place poetry award has inspired Maris to continue writing verse. When she writes, she said, she feels she is accomplishing something "worthwhile" and likes it when she realizes a reader has identified with her work.

"I wrote 'Running' from a mother-daughter perspective," she said. "Each time I read it or gave it to someone to read for themselves, I could see that they understood the point and how important it is for parents to create a safe place for their children."