Third-graders try their hand at writing novel

By Ashleigh Oldland, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 20, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Photo by Brian Lehmann / The Rocky

Davey Kincanon, 9, a student at Acres Green Elementary school in Douglas County, works Wednesday on a novel in his third-grade class for National Novel Writing Month. His story, "The Find of The Vampiretion," is about a ghost who wants to be a vampire.

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A classroom of third-graders at Douglas County's Acres Green Elementary School will also be a classroom of novelists by the end of November.

Kirsten Sola's class is participating in the 10th annual National Novel Writing Month, a nonprofit literary challenge meant to encourage aspiring writers to complete a novel in 30 days.

"It's the perfect opportunity to help students become excited about writing so they can tell the amazing stories that are already in their minds," Sola said. "The kids are talking about it all day long, and one day they even wanted to skip recess so they could keep writing."

Sola and her students are nearing their personal goals of writing 3,000- to 6,000-word novels. The class spends about an hour each day working and keeping track of their word counts on a chart. At the end of the month, the students will publish their work in hard-bound books.

Sabrina Riley, 8, said she's always wanted to write a book. Her novel is about two friends who are captured by an antagonist named Mr. Meanyhead.

"Mr. Meanyhead is a fire- breathing ball of lint," Sabrina said.

A story titled The Find of The Vampiretion by Davey Kincanon, 9, is about a ghost who wants to be a vampire.

Michelle Hou's story is about a girl who has to recover some stolen jewels to save a city. "The jewels were stolen from the Fairy Queen," said Michelle, 8. "I'm not sure how it will end yet."

And 8-year-old Srikar Chava's Pancake Wars is about "the largest pancake ever" and is set on Mars.

Sola records the students' progress with stickers and offers gummy worm incentives for the kids to keep pushing themselves to reach their word-count goals.

Mattie Martin, 7, is the youngest in the class, but she's keeping up with the other students and says she likes the assignment.

"I get to express how I feel about crazy characters as they happen in my mind," she said.

Mattie's story, with a villain named Scary Fairy, is already 3,457 words. Her goal is to reach 4,500 words.

Sola said writing the novels helps the students learn about word choice, dialogue, character, setting, plot and climax.

Tom McCoskey, 9, said he has always wanted to write a good story. "I wrote one in second grade, but it didn't make any sense at all," he said.

Eight-year-old McGregor Durie is already planning for a sequel to his novel.

"I'm going to have a cliffhanger ending," he said.

Sola, too, is writing her own novel. Her story is about an iPod that can compel people to act against their will.

"Some of the students are already further along than I am," Sola said. "I hope they will keep their books as a reminder of how you can accomplish anything if you put your mind to it."

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