Dryden High School seniors write children’s books

DRYDEN — When it comes to learning how to write well, the best method is to simply put pencil to paper.

Students in Jacqueline Sisler’s English 12 class at Dryden High School did just that.

Seniors were tasked to create their own children’s books, working out the plot and characters and writing their tales. The criteria were intentionally left minimal in order to draw out the maximum level of creativity in each student.

Students were instructed to choose an audience: age 2-4, Kindergarten to second grade, grades 3-4 or grades 5-6. Appropriate vocabulary for the grade that they selected, as well as illustrations that were visually appealing for the age group selected, were the only two criteria. The rest was left to their own creative imagination. “For the youngest groups, it’s mostly illustrations, like picture books, and as they get older, the vocab gets harder and it’s more content-driven,” said Sisler.

It’s a big ask, but one that seniors Izzy Hill and Leta Garretson went “above and beyond,” said Sisler, receiving perfect scores with extra credit for the project.

Garretson opted to write a book for older kids, creating a “cautionary tale” called Smudgy’s Tale that tells the story of a melancholy ghost “in a dead-end job who complains and mopes in misery.” She said the book, complete with hand-drawn illustrations, teaches readers to be selective of with whom you spend your time. “I think it’s a different take on children’s books, which usually tell you about how to be good, but no one tells you what not to do,” she said. “Basically, be careful who you give your time to.”

Garretson said she’ll continue working on her story, the characters of which she’d developed before she even started writing and said they’re all “loosely based” on her own life. “I’m pretty proud of it,” she said. “It took a long time to write and draw.”

Hill’s story focuses on much younger kids but continues with important themes, namely that of anxiety. Her tale, Going into Third Grade, uses both text and illustration — the splashing of paint becoming more severe during passages of high anxiety — to accentuate her message of mental health awareness for young students. “The splatters all over the page represent all of the anxiety,” she said. “Anxiety does not always look pretty, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be displayed.”

Hill will also continue to work on her message, and plans to create follow-up works that look at anxiety and depression as a college-bound student, keeping with that mental health focus.

Sisler said the project is one she assigns every year, and prior to the pandemic, her students would head to Dryden Elementary School to read their books to students of the selected age group. “Hopefully we can get back to that next year,” she said.