Busby School students showcased their literary creations to their families at the school’s annual Author’s Night Barbecue and Book Fair May 4.
The student-authored books were displayed throughout the school’s foyer for families and kids to peruse before enjoying the book fair and barbecue — so much so that the school had to restock on hamburger buns.
“Our kids worked really hard on their books, so it’s nice to show them all in one place,” said Busby School principal Raime Drake. “This has become a tradition and they have been doing this for lots of years so the kids can add a book to their collection.”
Grade 5 student Landen Moon’s book, Trapped Inside, recounts a tale of adventure about getting trapped in the Head-Smashed-in-Buffalo Jump museum with his dad.
“We went and were looking at stuff and wanted to look at this last thing and when I was done looking, we found out that we were locked in,” Moon said. “All the buffalo and First Nations people came alive as we were going through stuff and so then we got help from them to get out.”
Moon had some real-life experience having visited the site once and took further inspiration from a school lesson.
“It kind of relates to my previous Social (Studies) project because we were doing research about the First Nations,” he said.
The book itself took him three days to write and add illustrations, he noted.
Drake said the younger grades had more structure with their plots, like the kindergartens who inserted their own ideas into the existing story frame of the book, ‘Don’t let the pigeon drive the bus.”
Meanwhile the students in Grades 5 and 6 crafted their own ideas.
“Many of them have turned them into a sequel that maybe they wrote last year or a chapter book,” she noted. “They know that this comes every April and they have ideas and they’re eager to write and illustrate their stories.”
Each book is published and bound, giving students exposure to the publishing world by writing an “About the Author,” story blurb to entice the reader, and a Busby Publishing Company sticker to seal the deal.
“By the time they leave here in Grade 6, they have quite the collection of books to show their development from Kindergarten to Grade 6,” Drake said.
