Cheryl Harness stood with her hands on her hips as she stared down fifth-grade students at Tommie Barfield Elementary Thursday morning.

“Repeat after me you little squirts,” the author and illustrator said with a smile. “All real writers work on their writing some more.”

For the 100 students sitting on the floor of the music room, the advice was worth being called a squirt for, especially since each and every Tommie Barfield student is a published author this year.

Harness and author Patricia Hermes spent the morning talking to students about what it means to be an author and illustrator. The presentations were part of the annual Authors and Artists Night held Thursday evening, said Jill Hansen, president of the Tommie Barfield PTO.

“Today is a very special day, because we are celebrating you as authors,” Hansen said Thursday.

Each of the school’s more than 700 students spent several months writing and illustrating books, which the school’s parent-teacher organization then bound.

While the books were formally given to students during Thursday evening’s open house, some teachers gave their students a sneak peak at what they could expect when their parents picked up the books.

The books for the third-grade Challenge class were already neatly on display in Melinda Fregeau’s class Thursday afternoon. Fregeau teaches third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students as part of the school’s advanced program, which targets gifted students, she said.

“For me, Authors and Artists Night is a celebration of literacy,” Fregeau said. “My Challenge students have been working for at least two months on these books.”

Third-grader Cody Young said he was excited to see his book about football.

“(My parents) will be surprised when they see it,” he said.

Parents were also surprised to see the fourth- and fifth-grade project. Fregeau asked her students to build a scene using characters from books they read throughout the year. The project allowed students to work together, and learn more about characters in books they might not have read.

“This was the best part,” 10-year-old Christy Thorstenson said as she worked on her scene. “It was hands on.”

Hermes, a children’s author who spoke to students Thursday morning, said being hands on helps when it comes to creating a perfect children’s book.

“I’m not a kid anymore, but I write for people your age,” she said. “Children give me lots of good ideas, I collect a lot of my ideas from you. You see, authors are spies, and I am spying on you.”

Hermes has written more than 40 books over the past 20 years. Like Harness, many of her books are historical novels.

Hermes encouraged students to pursue their dreams of becoming an author, even if their chances of getting published were slim.

“There are publishers in the United States right now that will take books by kids, but not books by Pat Hermes because I am too old,” she said. “But they only publish one book by children each year. But where I come from in Connecticut we have a state lottery, and the ad says ‘Hey, someone has to win.’ “

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