Odenville Elementary students become published authors

ODENVILLE, Ala. (WBRC) - A group of 44 Odenville Elementary students are now published authors. The two first-grade classes wrote and illustrated books about counting to 100 in groups of 10.

The idea started when first grade teacher, Kristen Thrasher, saw an advertisement for free publishing kits through Studentreasures.

She immediately texted her colleague, Jessica Rich, and suggested that their classes each write a book.

Both classes wrote and illustrated the book on their own, which included the planning process and brainstorming.

Mrs. Rich’s class wrote the book “Porker Pig’s Surprise Party.” The characters are collecting items in 10s to bring to the party.

“There’s every kind of farm animal you can imagine, and they all have to bring a certain item to the whole party,” said Mrs. Rich.

And Mrs. Thrasher’s class titled their book “Count to 100 with Jaguar.” Jaguar collects everything from chicken nuggets to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches from other jungle animals.

“They go through the whole jungle asking certain animals for items in groups of 10s until they get 100 that they can take to their teacher,” said Mrs. Thrasher.

It took the students around one month to complete the book. On Tuesday, the classes celebrated with a book signing event.

Mrs. Thrasher and Mrs. Rich were beaming with pride.

“It’s exciting to do something like this and get to share it, but also academically. What they put into it and what it takes to write it and go through the process and come up with the ideas on their own. We could have easily have sat there and said ‘okay, write this down,’” said Mrs. Thrasher.

The teachers plan to to do the same project next year with their students. They hope to publish one book in the fall and one in the spring to see the students’ academic progress over the year.

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