Published in Troy Messenger on Wed, April 20th

Young authors abound in Cheryll Penny’s fifth-grade classes at Goshen Elementary School.

Published young authors, at that.

The students were like kids at Christmastime as Penny opened the boxes of books that contained their published works. Three titles of published works – “Pets,” “Flying High on Friendship Sky” and “Acts of Kindness Count.”

“My classes wrote and illustrated books this year and we had them published through Studentreasures Publishing,” Penny said. “All the students did an outstanding job of writing the copy for the books and illustrating them. They are very proud of their work, as they should be.”

Penny said each student contributed to the publications according to their interests.

Cheryll Penny signed the book of Goshen Elementary School young author, Brady Singleton. Penny’s fifth-grade classes wrote and illustrated three books that have been published.

“Flying High on Friendship Sky” gave students a reason to think about friendship and the value of having friends.

Madison Kisner and Kaci Wilkes are fast friends and it was important for them to write about their friendship.

“Friends are important because you have somebody to do things with,” Madison said.

Kaci added that friends can depend on each other.

“Life would be sad without friends,” she said.

“Acts of Kindness” was an opportunity for the students to consider ways they can be of help to others.

“You don’t have to do big things to do something nice for somebody,” said Xavier Reichbaum.

The book on pets was a fun book that had roots in the students’ study of animals. A pet parade of stuffed animals was a highlight of the unit.

“We couldn’t bring real animals to school so they brought their stuffed pets,” Penny said. And the pets were back at school for the book signing party Penny hosted for the young authors on Friday.

“Every author has a book signing,” she said. “The students signed each other’s books and that will make them even more special.”

For Haylee Sanford, the book project was special “just because.”

“I didn’t know that I could write something for a book,” she said. “But I like what we did and I like to see my name and my pictures in a real book.”

For Andrew Galloway, writing the books was an opportunity to express himself with words and pictures.

“I like to draw and writing made you think about a lot of things,” he said. “I think I am a kind person because I helped make cookies for a neighbor and she said nobody had done that for her in a long time.”

Penny said the books that the students “published” not only gave them creative opportunities but also provided them with food for thought about friendship, about showing kindness to others and about the love and companionship the pets bring into their lives.

The fifth-grade authors took their books home to share with their families. And, that might be the most special thing of all, Lola Adams said.