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Young authors show dedication to writing
(by Sue Hoffman - April 09, 2009)
Young authors show dedication to writing
By SUE HOFFMAN
Christopher Gerard Velotta Jr. is only 8 years old, and he's already an author. The second-grader at St. Anselm School in Chester recently wrote the book, "If I Had a ..." reflecting his love of art and writing, as well as his interest in building.
"If I had a jewel, I would buy materials at a store to make a house," his hard-bound book begins. "I'm going to build it lovingly and fast."
Page by page, the actual materials for his perfect house unfold, from the ice-pop sticks to seashells, bows and buttons. He concludes the book with a display of all his construction materials, including the large feather for the chimney, the "ultra-sparkly foam Valentine stickers" for flowers, green yarn for grass and shells for the front door.
"I dedicated my book to my Grandpa Bill Jirousek," Christopher said. "I chose him, because he builds a lot, and I love him." Christopher's page "about the author" reflects his own passion for art, sports and music, and he also included a page for comments by his readers.
Christopher and all of the students at St. Anselm School wrote books on themes assigned per grade level. They recently displayed their works along with hundreds of other young authors when their school hosted the Geauga County Catholic Young Authors Conference.
All of the students from St. Helen School in Newbury, St. Mary School in Chardon and Notre Dame Elementary School in Munson joined the St. Anselm students in displaying the books they had written. Their parents accompanied them for a festive evening celebrating literature.
St. Anselm second-grade teacher Megan Galasky, who coordinated the conference, said students spent four weeks working on their books. "It was a detailed process," she said, including pre-writing, planning, illustrating, writing a rough draft and editing the work before it was typed by parents," she said.
"We learn all the processes of writing a book," she said, from the dedication to the page about the author.
The guest speaker was children's author Mia Coulton, accompanied by her dog, Danny, the yellow Labrador featured in her "Danny" series. A former Reading Recovery teacher in Shaker Heights, she developed the series by combining her love of teaching and lifelong passion for pets. She has sold over 100,000 books in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Europe through her publishing company, Mary Ruth Books Inc.
St. Anselm School works on display had themes ranging from friendship to fantasy. They were all typed and illustrated, with the help of parents for the younger students.
First-grader Keira Oyen showed much sensitivity in her book, "Friendship Is," a title chosen for her grade level. The young author described herself as living "in Chesterland with her parents, one brother, one cat, two hamsters and a bunch of fish. Her friends are very important to her."
"Friendship is helping each other," she wrote in her picture book. "Friendship is being fair. A friend should be kind. A friend should never hit. A friend should play with you." Her book included several illustrations showing friends helping one another, as well as pointing out behavior that is not acceptable, such as hurting another's feelings.
Kindergartner Adam Zakrajsek's book looked impressive with its gold award seal and illustration of himself on a bicycle on the front cover. His book, "Adam and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," brings up all the possible events that can go wrong for a youngster, from forgetting his library book to waking up late.
Adam drew an empty kitchen table to illustrate the time that "he slept too long and did not eat breakfast."
"The best thing about having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day is that at night you get to go to bed and wake up the next morning to a bright new beginning," wrote the kindergartner, who loves sports, computer games and the study of Spanish.
Like her classmates, eighth-grader Maura Dempsey wrote about "changing places." "We had to change places with someone in a story or movie." In her fantasy, Maura, who's on the swim and track teams, had her main character exchange places with a modern-day Cinderella, getting ready for prom. The twist in her story was that her classmates found Cindy's new friendlier personality much more likable.
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