Students Become Kid Authors

by Rachad Hollis
photo by Bryan Beard
Published May 11, 2009



The students at Pittsford’s Mendon Center Elementary school are learning how to write non- fiction text.

"Small, small, small. Swinging from tree to tree. Skimming the canopy’s surface eating bugs and fruit surprisingly big for him," reads third grader Hanna Washburn.

Washburn along with her classmates, helped write the book “Poetry Celebrating Life in the Amazon Rainforest".

"They picked topics of interest and the Amazon Rainforest aligned with our study of Brazil in Social Studies," said Heather Kwit, third grade teacher.

When the students finished the book, they submitted their work to the national Scholastic “Kids Are Authors Contest.” The contest was open to students in the United States in grades K-8.

“I thought that we had a pretty good chance because it was so awesome. I mean we did a really good job on it, at least I think we did," said third grader Eric Byington.

“It was so much enthusiasm around it and the beauty of it was they were just excited about hard work. They learned a lot about hard work through this process,” said Kwit.

After weeks of waiting to see if they won, Kwit's class was called to a surprise assembly.

Byington knew something was going on and the first thing that came to his mind was that his class won the grand prize. He was right. The book he helped write will be published and sold at Scholastic book fairs throughout the country.

"I was just screaming my head off when we won and I was like, 'Yes!,'" said Byington.

“I know there are 25 honorable mentions so I thought, 'Oh my gosh, we got an honorable mention.' But when they said winner, I couldn't believe it,” said Kwit.

The books submitted in the contest were judged on overall appeal to children, quality of artwork and compatibility of text and illustrations.

Students said writing the book was hard work, but the finished product was well worth the time and effort.

"It's plenty worth it even if you don’t win, it’s just satisfying knowing that you did it," said Byington.

"This is what teachers live for, when kids do things they can beam about.. And I was beaming before this award. This is just the icing on the cake," said Kwit.