Student authoring
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on December 24, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/PHYLLIS MOORE
Diane Wolfe, right, publisher with Dancing Lemur Press, hands out books to Pierce Daniels, from left, Aidan Barrett and Amer Hanshali, who are some of the Norwayne Middle School sixth-graders who wrote the poems and stories compiled and published in "Snapping Turtles Vol. 2."
Not many 11-year-olds have a book published in time to give to family members at Christmas.
That was the case recently for 20 students in Michelle Rutledge's sixth-grade class at Norwayne Middle School.
In fact, this was her second group of students to accomplish that, thanks in part to local publisher, Diane Wolfe of Dancing Lemur Press.
"I'm a traditional publisher -- the author sends a query, a letter proposing their manuscript. We pick the best ones, sign a contract. They'll send the manuscript in, do the revisions for us. We'll format, do the cover design and get a release for it," Mrs. Wolfe explained.
The two women were already acquainted through their church, The Lord's Table. When the educator invited the former writer-turned-publisher to speak to her class, it proved to be fortuitous for both.
"I told them about how publishing works. We talked about characterization, which I have done with a lot of schools," Mrs. Wolfe said. "Then I contacted her with the idea for the students to write a story based on their character and make a book for them."
At a fraction of the cost it would have entailed to publish a book, Mrs. Wolfe was able to cut down on some of the expenses and make it affordable for parents to purchase a copy.
The process took about two months, she said.
"The teacher makes the selection, she's had them do a rough draft and goes through, makes suggestions," she said. "She picks the very best ones, edits them and sends them to me.
"I do a little further editing, keeping the kid's voice. My main thing is to break it up so it's easier to read."
The compilation of poems and fictional stories allows the students to capture their work and preserve it in book form.
"It was really, really creative stuff," she said of the pre-teen's work. "There was such an assortment, but you could tell they were still kids.
"There was one, his (character) father was a pilot; another one wrote about zombies. That was the whole goal, to get kids to enjoy writing. And then you can take them and make a good story."
The bulk of the publishing process is all done in-house -- including the cover, done by Mrs. Wolfe's husband, Craig Wolfe, a graphic designer -- while the final step, printing, is sent out.
The holidays almost thwarted the schedule, but fortunately the books arrived in time to be distributed the morning of the last day before the holiday break.
Mrs. Rutledge served up hot chocolate and cookies at the makeshift "book signing party" held in the library for the 20 students whose works were chosen for "Snapping Turtles Vol. 2," a reference to the class mascot. The first volume was published by former students last year.
"It's a lot of work but it's worth it," the teacher said. "The kids, I just think it will mean something to them forever."
Aidan Barrett, 11, was one of the first in line, picking up 10 copies to share with family over the holidays.
He immediately opened the book and turned to the page featuring his story, a smile breaking out on his face.
"It was called 'Ending All Wars.' It's kind of about these three best friends, which are kind of like me and my two other best friends," he said. "We kind of go on to a mission and we have to like defeat an enemy base and when I come back, destroy the base. We're just doing our normal jobs."
The idea for his story came from "Call of Duty," a popular video game, he said.
It took a while to hand write the story, he said, but seeing the finished product made it all worthwhile.
"It's kind of cool, I guess," he said.
Classmate Pierce Daniels' submission was about a boy's journey to becoming a world famous fighter. The main character fought the No. 1 fighter in the world, breaking his leg and later going into a coma before staging a comeback and winning the title.
Seeing his name and story captured within the pages of a book "feels great," he said.
One potential author with a "strong voice," Mrs. Wolfe said, was Amer Hanshali, 11, who especially immersed himself in the writing process.
"The first idea, my first draft, it was like about a boy who was an orphan and he wanted to find out who his parents were, and he also had to take care of his little brother, Maxwell," he said. "The second draft, I thought of making it different a little bit -- how it all started, why their mom abandoned them."
In addition to tweaking the storyline, he also took to heart his teacher and Mrs. Wolfe's advice on developing character and dialogue.
"First it was third person. And then I'm like, it wouldn't be interesting, so I changed it to first person," he said.
Holding a tangible copy of his work in hand was "really cool, amazing," he said, but one of his original versions, tucked neatly away in a notebook at home, is especially meaningful.
"I want to keep it, pass it down generationally," he said.
Educators interested in learning more about publishing student works, e-mail [email protected].