Middle-schoolers experience the thrill of being published

Cindy Morales may be only 11, but she already is a published author.

“It’s fun and you get to do it with your friends,” the Manatee Middle School student said as her classmates looked at her book, which is called “All About Me.”

“I am giving this to my parents,” Cindy said.

Her friend, Kendra Sprague, said she was going to give hers to her mom and hoped to share it with her grandparents.

“I want to know if they like it,” she said of her book, which is titled “My Past and My Family and My Friends Memories.”

“It feels weird to have my own book,” Kendra said.

The students created their own books as a part of a school project that was the brainchild of Sharlene Burkett, the reading coach at Manatee Middle School.

Students worked on their books during their language arts classes in the first semester of school. Staff then sent the students’ books and drawings to Nationwide Learning in Kansas, where the books were bound in their white covers and sent back to the school.

The books came back last month and were distributed during the students’ lunch Thursday.

Burkett modeled her program after a similar program her mother was affiliated with in a Georgia school district.

“The goal is to get the kids excited about writing,” she said. “We want the kids to want to write and we want them to know there is a purpose for writing.”

Photo by JASON EASTERLY, Naples Daily News

Manatee Middle School sixth-grader Celina Da La Cruz, center, reacts with Stephanie Padron as Estela Serrano, all 12, watches on while reading stories from Padron's published book at the school on Thursday afternoon. 285 students participated in the project in which they wrote stories and illustrated pages for their books throughout the semester.

The books ranged in topics from stories on rattlesnakes and family pets to Kristina Blair’s story about her sister Jade, and Natasha Legros’ story about three wise bears.

“They are looking for a new habitat because their habitat was destroyed by building,” said Legros, 14. “Real bears have their homes destroyed by houses and they have to find new habitats.”

Legros wrote a book last year for the program. It was the story of her life.

“It feels good,” she said of the experience. “I wrote my own book.”

Manatee Middle Principal Scholastica Choi beamed as she congratulated the authors.

“The kids did a phenomenal job,” she said. “This is amazing.”

Burkett published 125 student books last year. This year, 285 students had a book published. The students ranged from advanced to those in intensive reading classes.

Burkett said she hopes to expand the program schoolwide.

School media specialist Tamre Church said she hopes the program inspires kids not only to write, but to enjoy reading.

“This is such a motivating thing,” she said.

Church said the staff is working to expand the program and will one day have a corner in the media center reserved for “Manatee’s published authors.”

Carolyn Uphane, an exceptional student education teacher, said her students used the project to create a cookbook.

“Their books are the recipes of food that we made in class,” she said. “I wanted them to focus on a finished product. This, for us, was not only about writing. It was about participation and social skills.”

Adam Sandifer, 12, contributed a recipe to his book titled “Beef Stroganoff.”

“It’s my favorite food,” he said of the title. “This (experience) was funny and cool. It’s funny because no one in my family has been published before. I am the first one.”