Who says today's young people are mired in video games? The summer work of five local adolescents led to six published books -- all of which came with royalties.
"I said, 'Let's make a book,'" repeated Phyll Campbell, a local indie author who guided the youngsters through the process. "I had zero expectations. I wanted to see what they would create. My goal was for the students to be excited and complete a project."
Original Titles
All books available at amazon.com.
Megan’s Great Fear
by Nicole Abram
A young girl is afraid to swim in the ocean because of all the creatures that live there.
A Lemur’s Life: The Power Within
The Royal Family: A Lemur’s Life Book No. 2
By Bella Bond
A lemur is taken to a lab, and must find his family. In the sequal, the lemur escapes from the lab and finds himself in the middle of a mystery.
The Mystery of Death Bridge
By Ari Ford
A dogs is adopted from “doggie jail,” and becomes a therapy dog. His handler, Emily, becomes concerned about the rising number of suicides at a certain bridge.
Crystals of Light
by Ian Litchford
Boys find a crack in the floor leading to a crystal cave, which houses another world. The boys, along with “micro-guys,” find crystals of light for swords to defeat the evil Dark.
Doggie Dilemma
By Cadence Moore
Fido’s owner sends him to “dog prison” to hide his own dirty traits. Fido busts out of prison and meets some new friends. The work to be loved again as “good dogs.”
Publish a Book
Phyl Campbell, a local author, offers workshops and classes on writing, publishing and even computer skills for students of all ages. Descriptions and prices can be found on her website:
In four sessions each, Campbell led writing programs in June, July and August. Writing was the students' homework, while she used class time to lead them in publishing through Amazon's CreateSpace -- a print-on-demand publishing program. The final result was six paperback books, each with its own International Standard Book Number (or ISBN), a numeric commercial book identifier, provided free through CreateSpace.
"These five authors, ages 9 to 11, met with me over the summer to create six fabulous stories -- while most of their friends (and my own son) were busy soaking up rays at the pool or playing video games," Campbell said. "They learned how to use various word processors, image editors and the online publishing platform CreateSpace."
She now follows her published authors as they work on their next books by checking their work on Google Docs. "I can see when they get stuck and help them get through it."
The classes met at Onyx Coffee Lab in Springdale. "The kids thought it was great. They got to see so many people on computers and tablets, writing and working." Campbell said.
Ian Litchford was the inspiration for the class, Campbell credited. He had completed a manuscript in the spring, and his mother asked about writing programs.
Nine-year-old Litchford downplayed his story and his writing. His inspiration came from "nowhere," he said. "I just made it up. I just like to write."
Crystals of Light "is like a dog book meets 'Bones,'" Campbell said, referring to a television series about a forensic anthropologist who helps solve murders for the FBI.
Litchford also provided the computer-generated illustrations for Crystals of Light. Students designed their book covers and even wrote their own author profiles.
During a celebratory meal Sept. 15 at AQ Chicken House in Springdale, Campbell and the writers presented their books to family and friends. Each author received a copy of his book, as well as royalty statements. In three months, the students have earned a total of $165 in royalties, coming in $2 or $3 at a time, Campbell reported.
As a special guest, fifth-grader Nicole Abram presented Helen Eaton, her fourth-grade teacher at Holcomb Elementary School in Fayetteville, with a copy of Megan's Fear for her classroom library.
"I think Nicole is a very, very quiet girl who found her voice through writing," Eaton said of Abram. "I'm very proud of her. Through her portfolio, I've seen her writing just blossom. It's a pleasure to read her work."
Abram received two five-star reviews on Amazon for Megan's Fear, a story about a girl afraid to swim in the ocean, Campbell reported.
Abram noted the similarities in her book and her summer vacation: Her family went to Myrtle Beach, S.C., and the 10-year-old was afraid to enter the water because of "all of the creatures that live there."
"This is the only story that could actually happen," Campbell said. "The book is short, but it's powerful."
In the first rough drafts of the students' books, Campbell -- a former teacher -- would point out mistakes a writer of their age should know. For the second draft, she just made the corrections herself. "I wanted them to continue and go deeper in the story," she said. "I wanted the end product to reflect their work -- not their work an adult changed.
Some students knew the features of fiction: "Every story needs a beginning, a middle and an end," the teacher said.
But in Crystals of Light, Litchford "wanted to go on the adventure and never stop," Campbell said. "I told him endings are great, but it was hard for him."
The fourth-grader at Young Elementary School in Springdale has two sequels planned.
Ari Flack, writing as Ari Ford, credits his friend Jacilyn Sabatini with the completion of his book, The Mystery at Death Bridge. "She wrote a book and said it was published, and I said I wanted to publish a book," the 11-year old said. "It turned out so well, I keep asking, 'Why is it mine?'" Sabatini also served as his sounding board for ideas.
As he was writing The Mystery of Death Bridge, Flack told the story through the voice of the dog -- and stayed with the voice to the end of the story.
"That's not something you can teach, folks. That's talent," Campbell said of the sixth-grader at Hellstern Middle School in Springdale. "We can fix that punctuation and capitalization stuff later."
Olivia Bond, writing as Bella Bond, found her inspiration when she watched a movie about lemurs, an animal she then researched. "I used stuff that was real, and some of it, I just made up," she said.
Her summer started with the publication of the book A Lemur's Life: The Power Within and finished with the publication of another, The Royal Family: A Lemur's Life Book No. 2.
"I think about how much better Bella's second book is than her first -- how much she's grown as a writer," Campbell said.
"I really like it," the 10-year-old home-school student from Springdale said about writing. "I just like to write stories. Sometimes, I think faster than I can write."
"She also reads constantly," said her grandmother, Marilyn Hoke.
Bond plans to feed that passion: She will use her royalties to "buy more books on Amazon."
NAN Our Town on 09/24/2015