A new published author in the family

Our county office of education puts on a Student Author Book Fair each year.  They do it at our local shopping mall.  Schools have a table set up and display the books written by their students each year.  Mrs Jackson, Gage’s teacher does it every year.  Ruthie was a published author in 2nd grade as well because she had Mrs Jackson, too.  Now Gage joins those ranks.

(I would like to point out that I still beat them — I was published first in first grade!)

Mrs. Jackson does an amazing job with her kids.  They write the stories, illustrate them, and then bind them into books.  Most of it is done in class.  Each family helps their child make a book cover.  I made both kids’ book covers the same way — well, I guided.  The kids did most of the work.

The culminating event was having the kids read their books to the assembled masses at the book fair.  In the picture above, Gage is reading it to me and a 4th grade teacher at our school, Ms. Cress.  I believe Ms. Cress had just made a funny observation about his book.

When the kids read their books, they get to sit in the Author’s Chair and are interviewed with a microphone and then they read their book.  It is a fantastic event and the children really grow as people with rich possibilities because of it.  I’m so proud of my two published author’s.

I know my own experience with having a poem chosen to be a part of a published book of poems and essays for my school district when I was in first grade is the reason I have always known I was a writer.  I had actual proof — my name in a book.  Isn’t it amazing how we can open children up to life by giving them experiences like this when they are so young?