Los Gatos High Honors Freshman Publish Ebook

From the Freshman Class of Los Gatos High School:

Los Gatos, CA - April 26, 2016 - Seven classes of Los Gatos High School freshmen Honors English students have designed and created a poetry EBook, filled with their own poetry, all relevant to teenage life and covering a wide variety of ideas. Available for download beginning May 12 at Kobo, Barnes and Noble,and iBooks, the book, Where the Poe-tree Grows, is sure to be big hit. It is available for pre-order now at Smashwords, and will serve as a fundraiser for the LGHS Class of 2019.

The book is a collaboration of seven classes taught by two honors English teachers, Mrs. Kathleen Wehr and Mrs.Tonya McQuade, as well Los Gatos-based Smashwords. Smashwords is an independent ebook publisher that helps publish books for small time authors. Mark Coker, founder and CEO of Smashwords, is also a n LGHS graduate and has helped guide the project in the past.

Proceeds from the sale of the ebook will contribute to funding for the Class of 2019, including or their junior and seniors proms. In 2014, the first year LGHS students took on this project, their ebook, Windows to the Teenage Soul, hit number one on the Apple iBook Chart on the day of its release. This year’s freshmen aim to build on and surpass that mark.

Each student in Mrs. McQuade’s and Mrs.Wehr’s classes submitted his or her best poem to the ebook, addressing a broad range of issues from history to romantic love. Through this ebook students will be able to share a piece of their best writing with the world.

In organizing the ebook,students created five separate teams to to accomplish the editing, layout, marketing and publicity, art and photography, and event planning for the ebook. Being in these groups has allowed the students to experience the hard work required in self-publishing. Also, these teams introduced students to career fields with real world applications.

Ebooks are growing rapidly in popularity and demand. They present great advantages over printed books because they are more money, time, and space efficient. Additionally, as seen in this project, the process to self publishing an ebook is easy enough for first-time students to excel in.

The students hope the e-book project will become standard in classes around the world so kids can learn how to publish and learn how English skills can be used in real life. As one student put it, “It is interesting to have a piece of you go out into the world.”

Poetry not only teaches these aspiring authors that their works are valuable, but also that they can easily pursue the career if they wish.

In honor of the ebook’s release, the LGHG students will be hosting a celebration of both the poets and the poetry on May 12 in the LGHS Library from 6:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. There will be food, live readings, and an award ceremony.