Springville School wins national book contest

Springville School has some of the very youngest authors in the nation, who are not only published, but now are also award-winning authors.

The entire first grade class, taught by Pat Sanders, are all published co-authors. Each of the budding writers is proud to own a hardback copy of the book they wrote, “Our Character Counts.”

Every year, over one million students from 15,000 elementary, middle, and high schools, as well as colleges, participate in an annual project sponsored by Nationwide Learning of Topeka, Kansas. (www.nationwide-learning.com)

The company was formed 16 years ago by Joseph Gigous. He thought if he gave books away to student-authors, the parents and other family members would provide the funding necessary for publication, by purchasing their children’s books. The company started with family members and today employs 140 folks, sending books written by young people to every state in the union.

The corporation annually conducts the Nationwide Learning National Book Challenge, picking a few of the books submitted for recognition. This year, 26 submissions were selected, most from the Midwest and eastern portion of the United States. Only three from the West Coast were honored, two of them from southeastern Tulare County. One came from the Springville School first graders, one from Porterville [John J. Doyle Elementary, as reported yesterday in The Recorder], and the third from Jackson, up in the Gold Country.

Beginning in February, Pat and her class began this substantial project. In order to teach her class the process of writing a book, then getting it published, she asked her students to create the content. As a collaborative classroom effort, her classroom would get one free book.

Springville School is a Character Counts school and Mrs. Sanders’ first graders are excited about this program.

The students chose one of the traits: Responsibility, Citizenship, Caring, or Trustworthiness, then wrote a narrative describing how they display the trait in everyday life. Additionally, they created drawings to illustrate their writing.

With no thought they had created a nationally recognized book, their project was completed and shipped to Nationwide for publication. Everybody in the class was looking forward to seeing in print the one book the classroom would receive.

A recent phone call to Mrs. Sanders during the school day, advised her she needed to get her release slips sent in “… right away.” She quickly gathered the required forms and shipped them to Kansas, wondering exactly what the call meant.

The day the releases arrived, she was advised by e-mail that the book written by her class was one chosen to be nationally recognized. As a reward, every child in the class would receive a free book. And Mrs. Sanders would receive a $100 award to be used in her classroom. She commented, “I’m going to use this for something to enhance next year’s writing efforts.”

“Our Character Counts” was chosen in part because it was a good story which children will enjoy reading, reports Kathryn Sagar, media representative for Nationwide Learning. The book followed the theme and publishing guidelines, and it was neat and orderly in presentation. Of great importance though, is the visual appeal.

Before the books were printed, the parents were asked if they would like to purchase a copy of their children’s book for $14.95 plus $2.95 shipping and handling. Ms. Sagar said the company does not keep digital copies of the books yet. If anyone decides they want a book after the original pre-publication order, the book has to be sent back to the company, copied, and reprinted. This increases the cost to $19.95, plus shipping and handling.

Sagar also revealed Nationwide Learning signed a contract with the Character Counts organization this spring. The book written by a first grade class from Springville School will be an integral part of the Nationwide promotion during the upcoming school year.

First-class education is indeed alive and well at Springville School.

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Brent Gill is a freelancer writer. His “Daunt to Dillonwood” column appears regularly in The Porterville Recorder.