With his book in the Magruder Elementary library among famous authors J.K. Rowling, Judy Blume and Dr. Seuss, fourth-grader Anthony Rivera is making a name for himself.
Rivera’s growing fame as a writer came out of a new student-author program called Magruder Authors started by the school’s librarian Lilli Gill and first-grade teacher Tiffany Dormire. To start the program, Dormire used $200 she won from her 2012 Teacher of the Year Award from the York Foundation for Public Education.
“I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” Dormire said. “It really helps boost the kids’ confidence as writers when they know other children are going to be reading them.”
The program encourages the children to explore any topic they wish for their books, which have ranged from Angry Birds to Halloween to dragons. The students then write the books on their own and submit to Gill, who turns them over to a group of teachers who make further edits. The works-in-progress are then given back to the budding authors, who make the changes and have a friend review them before turning them in for publication.
Parent volunteer Kelitha Harris laminates and binds the works then sends them to Gill to be cataloged. The books are then put on a special shelf in the library, where kids can check them out.
“You should see their little faces when they realize someone has checked out their book,” Gill said, adding they are always “tickled” when that happens.
One book, “The Lonely Dragon” by Anthony Rivera, has become a Magruder favorite, as it is always checked out, Gill said.
“The Lonely Dragon is flying near the Great Wall of China. He thinks to himself, ‘No one will be my friend because everyone thinks I am scary,’” Rivera’s book begins.
It is a tale of friendship: A dragon named Sharp meets a like-minded female companion, Twinkle, who also shares his woes. It takes the reader from the Great Wall to the dragon’s mountain home and finally to the end where the two are fast friends who share their favorite recreational air space — all in about 100 words.
“Twinkle and Sharp play and fly around together over the Great Wall,” the book concludes.
Dormire said her students review the books on a regular basis alongside professional authors. When students are asked to name their favorite authors, Rivera’s name often comes up in the discussion.
All of the books on the shelves now are written and illustrated by the children. Rivera used computer graphics. Some use television screenshots and others, like second-grader Eric Goins, do the drawings themselves.
Goins’ wrote a book of riddles about animals, his favorite topic.
“I just think if somebody else is going to read my book I should do more books about animals,” said Goins, who wants to next make a pop-up book out of paper.
Magruder Principal Jane Yatzeck said there are now about 19 student-author books on the library shelves and always about five to eight books being passed along in the publication process. As the collection grows, keep an eye out among the stacks for a little book about dragon friends by Anthony Rivera.
