Pictured are the 10 published books.
Eighth grade students at Bethel-Tate Middle School were given the opportunity to join the Junior Authors Program. It is an eight week book publishing program where students get to plan, write, edit, and successfully publish a book with a little help from professionals including publisher JaQuan Postell, illustrator Matthew Postell, and Bethel-Tate’s 8th grade language arts teacher and author, Denae Jones.
The point of this program is to support students in their writing and publishing goals, and to give them a boost to start writing more. Students got to plan out everything that was going to happen in their book so that it would truly be their vision. They were encouraged to use their imagination to create an amazing story that others will love. Once the students were done writing their books, they received proper formatting, professional editing, design, and publishing. Finally, when all the steps were done, the fun really began and they were able to sell their masterpieces! All books were made available for sale through Amazon and Kindle, and are in circulation at participating libraries in the Greater Cincinnati area. The first of many book signings was held at the Bethel Public Library on March 19th, and was a huge success!
I interviewed each of the authors to hear how the whole experience was for them and to see what they wanted to tell readers about their book. During my interview with Leah, who is the author of “The Halloween Killer,” she said, “Each year on Halloween three kids get killed, but the killer puts them back in their bed. The main character’s sister and best friend were both victims, so she tries to solve the mystery of the killer.” When I asked her what her favorite theme was, of course she answered, “Murder mystery!” What a fitting title!
Heidi, the author of, “My Future In Seattle” explained that her book is about “a 16 year old studying medicine, who goes through different traumas and learns how to love.” As you may have guessed, her favorite themes are medicine and romance.
Through our interviews, I got to see a side of my classmates that I didn’t know and find out how this program has helped them both as an author and as a person. For example, Sophia, who is the author of “The Right Hand” said it helped boost her confidence. Grace, the author of the book, “The Miserable Truth,” mentioned that it helped her with time management and responsibility.
I thought it would be good to know how the authors used their skills to make these books enjoyable to the readers and found out that Allison and Lillianne not only wrote their own books, but also designed and illustrated their own covers! Allison, the author of “The Witches From Summerfield High,” explained that one thing that makes a good book is “conflict that is not predictable.” Lillianne, author and illustrator of “Galactic Troubles Beyond The Stars” replied with, “It’s an entertaining story that a wide audience can enjoy.”
When I was talking to Addison, the author of “Crazy or Cursed”, I asked about the process of planning out the book. She explained that she would start, “mapping out ideas and slowly writing it.” She said she would sometimes get stuck writing, but when she got through that part, it was pretty easy and she would go back to writing down ideas. Another author, Clara, wrote the book “Luna.” She also mentioned getting stuck and she said that she would just “write the next scene then come back” to the one she was stuck on. Even when these authors had tons of pressure on them for deadlines, they were able to work around all of their struggles and ended up writing a successful book.
Speaking to my classmates who are now authors was amazing. I was able to hear how they came up with the ideas on the spot and folded everything into one singular story. It was fun to shine a light on the whole process. I asked if they would want to write as a career or about writing more books, and I got just about the same answer from everyone. Mariah, the author of “Running Out Of Ink” said she thinks that writing “might be a good job for me, but if I were to make it my career, I would like to take writing jobs that have no time limits so I won’t be so stressed out about it.” Hannah, the author of, “The Eyes It Carried,” said that she would want to write again and that other people are “telling me to write another book.”
This program has been very supportive to all of these student authors, and all profits from book sales go straight to them. It has given them an outlet to express their full potential in writing, and really was a once in a lifetime experience that may just push them to further their futures in writing. Through these interviews, I realized that each student was truly able to make their book what they wanted it to be. It was fun to see how the students got to use their own likes and interests to create a beautiful book that they and others can enjoy.
Mrs. Jones hopes to do this program her 8th graders every year.
*Reese Vinson is an 8th grade student at Bethel-Tate Middle School, who enjoys sports, listening to vinyls on her record player, and gaming. She also enjoys reading and has a great potential for published writing in her future.