Poland kids write, illustrate own books

By Denise Dick

Winning entries will be published.

POLAND — You’ve likely heard of best-selling authors John Grisham and Stephen King, but how about Dalton Ashworth, Kyle Koziel and Gregory Romito?

The three boys are among the North Elementary pupils who are writing, illustrating and coloring their own books.

The literacy masterpieces will be submitted today to a Scholastic Books contest. The winning entries will be published.

The work of Dalton, 9, and Kyle and Gregory, both 7, tells the story of a basketball game in outer space between the Cheeseheads and the UFO Cows. Here’s a spoiler alert: The Cheeseheads win.

“It’s definitely a very creative book,” said Alisa Koziel, Kyle’s mom and the parent coordinator for the group.

The boys haven’t decided on a title yet, but “Basketball Battlefield on Mars” is a working idea.

Characters include Cheese Puff, Udder Man and Calf Man.

“Don’t forget Blue Cheese,” Dalton, a third-grader, warns.

Brainstorming to come up with the idea for the story was Dalton’s favorite part of project development.

“I like when Dalton brings the snacks,” Kyle, a first-grader, said.

The work started last month, and 15 groups of at least three pupils each are submitting their books.

“They first had to come up with an idea,” said Principal Michael Masucci. “They were instructed that they had to have the basics of a story: setting, characters, a problem and a solution.”

The groups worked after school, at one another’s houses and during recess to complete their books.

Parent Christine Cammack oversees the work of her daughter, Emily, 9, and fellow third-graders Kelsey Thompson and Alyssa Romito.

Their book is titled, “A Trip to Kelssily Beach.”

“We combined our names,” Emily said, explaining how the group named the beach.

Leah Frederick is parent coordinator for the group of Anise Albahmee, 9, Jacob Frederick and Jack Buccieri, both 10.

“Trapped in the Future” is about a trip through time that goes awry.

“It’s about a guy in 1952 who builds a time machine, and he went to the future to 2052,” Anise relays.

Something goes wrong and he’s stuck there. He has to cobble together parts that he finds to fix his machine to go home.

While he’s there, the man participates in a futuristic game the boys made up called disk arc ball. A pitcher throws a disk at a runner as he tries to get from one base to another.

“It pretty much just came to us,” Jacob said of the story’s inspiration.

Juliana Missos, 9, Evyenia Spencer, 10, and Niki Spencer, 8, put the finishing touches this week on “Girls and Boys Will Always Be...” with help from coordinator Irene Spencer.

“It’s about three girls who set up a lemonade stand,” third-grader Juliana said.

A group of boys then decides to launch a business venture on their own.

“The boys set up a cotton candy stand right next to the girls,” Evyenia, a fourth-grader, continues.

The cotton candy machine malfunctions and “cotton candy goes everywhere,” Niki, a second-grader, said.

The girls help the boys clean up the mess and the two groups collaborate on a lemonade/cotton candy business that leaves their competition in the dust.

Parent Tracy Kaschak, also a teacher at the school, coordinates the efforts of her son, Hayden, 7, and Mike Masucci and Mitchell Frederick, both 8.

Their book, “The Sharks Win the Game,” is about a group of boys who must raise money and solicit help from the community to clean up a sports stadium that’s in bad shape.

Mike, a second-grader and the principal’s son, and first-grader Mitchell, both name coloring as their favorite part of the book creation. First-grader Hayden prefers the drawing part.

Scholastic Books is expected to announce the winners by late spring.