In the book “6 Days of Waiting,” fourth-grader Celeste Charlet writes about a puppy so perfect, her heart dances at the sight of it.
Sophia Julia Timm’s “The Unusual Caterpillar” tells the story of a white caterpillar that eats green leaves in a failed effort to match the other caterpillars.
And 7-year-old Elleda Spitzer’s main character in “The Easter Bunny — The Real Story” witnesses a robbery and saves the Easter parade.
They’re just three of the more than 200 kindergarten-through-fifth-grade students who wrote and illustrated books in May for the Vine Hill Student Authors Fair.
Now Lea Reed, a parent who launched the pilot project at Vine Hill Elementary School, hopes to expand the program to other Scotts Valley schools.
“The biggest thing I did was to encourage them to write, and then their creativity just flowed,” she said. “They put their hearts and souls into their stories and really wanted them to be good.”
Reed, who grew up reading Nancy Drew books and writing in diaries, met with teachers and parent groups, gave writing workshops, spoke at assemblies, helped students with editing and handed out certificates to those who participated in the authors fair.
The students either typed or gave dictation to produce their books on Microsoft Word and then made and colored their own illustrations, covers, dedications and “about the author” pages.
“Writing brings out what’s important to kids,” she says. “With writing, you get an idea of what’s going on in their heads — their interests and dreams — that they don’t often talk about.”
She says parents can encourage their children to write during the summer.
And if her summertime efforts are successful, Reed will have encouraged other schools, parent clubs and parents of home-schoolers to participate in authors fairs for the next school year.
Reed can be reached at le*@****on.com.
