Elementary class authors book

By PAMELA GRANT
Cove Leader-Press

Members of Cynthia Powell’s 1st grade class at Clements Parsons Elementary unveiled and read the book that the class had worked long and hard to create.
The students held an Authors’ Tea on Thursday during which they presented their book, ‘Famous African Americans’. 
Each of the class’s students wrote and illustrated a page of the book depicting a famous African-American and their impact on the world. They wrote about Barack and Michelle Obama, Jackie Robinson, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, and many more.
Members of the Mount Hiram Masonic Lodge #595 AF&AM raised money to ensure that each of the children could receive a copy of the book that they helped author.
Bill Price, a past Master for the lodge said that when he learned that some of the kids could not afford the books, he went to fellow lodge members and they were happy to help out. They have helped out for the last three years with increased support each year. He said it was very gratifying that they were able to help out the children.
“This was also, for most of these kids, their first foray into public speaking,” said Price. “I thought they did an incredible job there.”
Creating the book wasn’t an easy endeavor. Each of the students went through a process of writing and editing their work until it became the final product which was read aloud at Thursday’s event.
“They have learned so much,” said Powell. “They did a good job. They edited, they corrected, and they’re very proud of the information they learned.”
Powell said the students learned a lot about how the world has changed and how they need to treat everyone equally. She said some of the students were aghast to learn about some of the inequalities that some famous African-Americans had to face.
Serenity Wheeler (7) wrote about Mae Jemison, the first African-American woman to travel in space.
“She wanted to go into outer space, and she blasted into space. She wanted to learn how space affects our bodies,” said Wheeler about Jemison. She said she wanted to be like her and that she thought it was very cool that she went into space.
David McCommas (6) wrote about Kadir Nelson, an artist, illustrator, and author.
“He illustrated books and he’s a good artist,” said Nelson. “I liked that we could make our own book.”