Natick Elementary Students Publish Anthology Of Stories

NATICK, MA — A class at Natick's Lilja Elementary School recently finished work on a book, which will soon be available to borrow at the Morse Institute Library.

Here's more from a press release written by Lilja teacher Heather Starkel's 4th grade class:

On June 16 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., Heather Starkel’s class from Lilja Elementary School is being honored with a reception at Morse Institute Library. The class wrote an anthology, and invite the media and public to celebrate a fourth-grade class getting its book published into circulation! Joining the class at the event is Morse Institute’s new director, Miki Wolfe, Children's Services Supervisor Dale Smith, and Children's Programmer, Kristen Arnold.

“As far as I know, we are the only class in Natick to have a book officially published and in circulation,” Starkel said. “I’m thrilled that students can always view their published book at the library, where it will be on display. The class is also excited for anyone in the Minuteman Library Network to check out our diverse collection of stories!”

The class started writing our stories in the fall, and it was going okay. It was hard to think of a good audience, so the class decided to ask the library to publish its stories for anyone who wanted to read them. The class wrote to the library and asked to have a book on display. When the Morse Institute said they would publish the stories (all in a book together!), have a publishing party, and would put the book in circulation… well, the class was ecstatic! The class put in even more effort.
Last week, the class had a call with Ms. Wolfe and Ms. Arnold and started to plan the party. They even made the agenda for the meeting, and it went really well!

“At the Morse Institute Library, we are delighted to support local authors of all ages!” Wolfe said. “We are thrilled that Ms. Starkel’s fourth grade class has chosen to add their anthology to our collection. We’re looking forward to reading the stories, and sharing them with other libraries in the Minuteman Network.”

Probably the hardest parts have been editing and not being able to have cupcakes at the publishing celebration. For the most part, the class is up to the challenges of becoming published authors.