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Ready to read: Frisco students get word wise
Jessica Rush / Staff Photo:
Sophie, 3, shows her mother, Jessica Uretsky, a hand-picked selection from the Book Fair.
By Jessica Rush, jrush@acnpapers.com
Parents, students, teachers and staff gathered Tuesday night at Heritage High School to prove once again that “Frisco Reads.” Library coordinator Leigh Ann Jones was in charge of organizing this year’s ninth Frisco Reads event, which gathered hundred of people and featured five published authors.
“We really want to celebrate reading and the written word with staff members and the community,” Jones said.
This year, break out sessions in classrooms showcased a newer form of reading found in digital formats, such as MP3 audio books or digital books.
The authors, which were booked for Frisco Reads about a year in advance, came from as far away as New York and California or were found as close as McKinney and Plano.
Darlington Johnson, an eighth grader at Scoggins Middle School, was the youngest published author promoting her first book “Layla the Ladybug.” The children’s book shows how Layla deals with peer pressure as other ladybugs tease her about her irregular spots.
“I started noticing that children were getting pressured by their peers,” Johnson said. “The spots symbolize her being unique, because hers are funny-looking.”
The book’s popularity was evident in that all 30 books she brought to autograph were sold out in the first 15 minutes of the event. Johnson is working to extend a positive influence to younger students through a sequel about Layla that deals with honesty. Her first book, which she also illustrated, can found at www.authorhouse.com.
Another young author, Dallas resident Joseph Hughes, wrote his first novel before he turned 20.
“I always loved writing,” he said. “Initially, I just wrote to keep myself sane when I got bored in class.”
The product of his boredom was a medieval fantasy story, “Armorica,” which follows Boryn Mhinbron on a quest for redemption, with a love interest mixed in the tale. Hughes started editing a sequel to “Armorica” a few months ago.
While the younger authors are just getting their feet wet in the literary world, Plano resident Anastasia Suen is working on her 120th book. A flurry of energy, Suen visited 31 Frisco ISD schools this month between teaching writing at Southern Methodist University and for online workshops.
“I talk about the six traits of writing,” Suen said, listing off ideas, organization, voice, sentence fluency, word choice and conventions as the steps she teaches older students attempting to write a book.
The younger students get involved with learning how books are made through pictures and hands-on activities. As a testament to her helpful instruction, one of Suen’s former students Kathryn Erskine is a 2010 National Book Award Finalist in the Young People’s Literature category.
Parents like Jessica Uretsky were stocking up on reading selections at the Book Fair with popular characters like Olivia the Pig and Skippyjon Jones. Jessica’s daughter, Sophie, is only three years old, but she enjoys making up her own version of the story after her mom reads to her.
“I think reading is very important,” Jessica said. “It’s good to start early and important for her to see me reading as well. Without reading, you really can’t function.”
If students did not want to purchase books either directly from the authors, at the Book Fair or from Barnes & Noble representatives, then they could get free books at Frisco Reads. A Book Walk gave away books as prizes for landing on the lucky spot.
In the Book Buddies program, high school honor students read to students for community service credit. The children got to keep the books, which were donated from various publishers or purchased from Scholastic Literacy Partners.
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