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Kingsland Third-Graders Write Prize-Winning Book

Posted on: Wednesday, 17 May 2006, 15:06 CDT

By John Weiss, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.

May 17--SPRING VALLEY -- For nine Kingsland third-graders, an October brainstorm turned into a wave of euphoria and one big loud scream May 9 when they learned they won a national book-publishing contest.

The nine students of Amanda Schwarck's enrichment class won the grand prize in the nonfiction category for Scholastic Books. The grand prize is $5,000 and 100 free books, Schwarck said. She isn't sure how the prizes, which will be in Scholastic merchandise, will be divided. The formal presentation of the actual book will be next fall.

The prize was announced in a surprise all-school assembly May 9.

The prize for the book "Problems with Pete the Pencil and Eddie the Eraser" is the same one that Mabel-Canton students won in 2002 for their book "A Band of Coyotes." The books are sold nationwide at Scholastic Book Fairs. About 2,500 entries from grades as high as eight were entered.

The nine are Kayleigh Rasmussen, Hannah Pruter, Carly Thompson, Julius Wolf, Kerstin Strosahl, Lacey Schwartz, Kayla Mulhern, Amy Welch and Trevor Schwarz. The plot of the book is how a pencil and eraser fight and ruin the report card of Bradley, the student. When they see the result, they feel bad and cooperate. Bradley again gets A's.

Trevor said the nine began brainstorming in October after school librarian Judy Rose came up with the idea that they should do a book. They tossed around ideas and finally came up with something that appealed to them: "It's better to, um, get along than fight," Carly said.

They admit they know the problem first-hand.

There are a lot of squabbles during kickball games, they said. They disagree on who touched a base or who got fouled. "The teacher has to take the ball away, and we can't play anymore and no one wins," Schwarck said.

Once they got the theme, Trevor came up with the pencil-eraser theme. "I just thought of it," he said.

The nine found they had to take their own advice. At times, they disagreed about art or the story. When they couldn't find common ground, they voted and moved on.

At the assembly, the nine were called up to the stage and the Scholastic representative told them they won. The nine gasped and cried.

They knew the book was good, "but I didn't think we were going to win," Kayleigh said.

There was one more thing to do. When they finished the project, Schwarck promised them they could scream over the school's PA system if they won.

On May 9, the nine went into the office and together screamed, "We won."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.

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Source: Post-Bulletin

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