7th grade authors celebrated
Published 2:30 am Thursday, December 15, 2016
Students in Candy Parker’s seventh grade language arts classes at Andalusia Junior High School are now published authors.
The students were honored Wednesday with an author’s tea, where parents were invited to learn more about the books were written.
Student Gray Jackson said he and his classmates have been working on their books since school started in August.
“We sat down in front of the computer and just wrote whatever came to our minds,” he said.
From Jackson’s thoughts, the book “Casual” was born.
“It’s about a man that is framed for taking a car,” Jackson said. “Throughout the book, he’s trying to clear his name.”
Ashli Parker said they finished their books about three weeks before Thanksgiving.
Her book, titled “Welcome to America” is about a Ukrainian orphan who comes to America.
“I worked with Ukrainian orphans, who came to America,” she said. “I wanted to write about their experiences.”
Brie Lesley said her thoughts led to “Into the Hole.”
“It’s basically about two high school students – Elizabeth Johnson and Brandon Rolling,” she said. “They have to save the world from throwing itself up.”
McClaine Bedingfield wrote a book titled, “x17.”
“The book is about Ryan, who gets tangled up in a mess and has to figure his way out of it,” Bedingfield said.
Bradley Talbott’s imagination led him to write “Uncharted.”
“It’s about two brothers and their friends trying to find a pirate ship,” he said.
He may have even thrown in Henry Every and a huge heist.
Connor O’Rourke’s book, “The Shadow” is about a boy named Connor who falls into a mirror, he said.
Amagenay McMeans called her book “The New Kid.”
“It’s about a boy who was new to Andalusia Junior High School,” she said. “He had to make new friends at his new school.”
Taniah Johnson added a little suspense into her writing, with her “The Boy That Saw Things.”
“The story is about a boy named Michael and his mom,” she said. “When they lived at another house, Michael thought he was seeing things. Then, they move to another house and he sees shadows walking in that house.”
Javeen Thompson wrote a book called “The Return of Max.”
“It tells the story of Brittany and her boyfriend who is an obsessed killer,” he said.
All of the students agreed that writing books was an experience.
“It’s a lot harder that it seemed,” Thompson said.
“The illustration part was hard,” McMeans said.
Lesley said that writing the book took a lot of patience.
“We also learned that we need to respect authors,” Jackson said. “Their jobs are a lot harder than we thought.”
This is the fourth year that Parker’s students have published the books, thanks in part to grants from the Andalusia Junior Woman’s Club.