Morris Twp. Author Help Fifth-Graders Get Published

It was just a happy coincidence. Now, a group of fifth-graders at Thomas Jefferson School will get to see their work published through collaboration with a Morris Township author.

Thomas Jefferson Teacher John Babula teaches a unit on fictional narratives as an extension of their personal narratives unit.  

“The children always love to share stories and they always seem to want to write fictional stories whenever they get to free write so I thought it might be fun to have a fictional story writing contest.  I had done that in the past and it always seemed to be a hit,” said Babula. “This year's prize was going to be having your story published through Amazon.com.  The children were extremely excited and so was I.”  

The coincidence came when Babula had a teacher conference with one of his student’s mother, Sarah Price. Morris Township resident Price is preparing for the , in about a week.

“In speaking to her and telling her about what we were doing, she immediately and most generously offered to publish all of our stories in an anthology and that is basically how it all began,” said Babula, who has never worked with another published author in this capacity. “However I can tell you that they are extremely excited about the entire venture. They just cannot wait for their written work to be published in a real book and then sold online.”

The book is titled "Musings from Fifth Grade Thomas Jefferson 2012-2013: An Anthology of Fictional Narratives."

“I have been collaborating with the fifth-grade teachers at Thomas Jefferson School and we are publishing an anthology of the children's work,” said Price. “It has been a year-long project and the children are so excited about it. It highlights a fictional narrative that they have been working on.”

About 65 fifth-graders are involved, 40 from two Babula’s language arts classes and the rest come from another class taught by teachers Diego Salas and JenniferPencinger.  

“We have been working on (the stories) in addition to all the other pieces of writing which are required through the district (curriculum).  It was just another way to get the students to write more while at the same time teaching them narrative techniques and increasing their enjoyment for writing, but now it has turned into so much more and we could not be more excited.”

Price echoed Babula’s feelings.

“I'm so excited about this project and hope other schools want to participate next year,” said Price. “I'm extremely excited about this project because I believe that, in a world ruled by Facebook statuses, Tweets and text messages, writing well is a dying art. It is my hope that, when the students see their stories in print and being enjoyed by their friends and family, they are  encouraged to continue writing, even if only for their own pleasure.”

To make things better, 100 percent of the proceeds from the book from any sales will be donated back to the school. The students are in round three of editing the proof copy and should be finished by this week, according to Babula and Price.

“I will be meeting with the teacher and students this week to review their edits,” said Price “Once the final versions are approved by the authors (i.e. the students), I will integrate their changes into the manuscript and publish it to Amazon in both eBookand paperback format. I imagine it will be out within the next two weeks.”