Author Visits St. Emily School

When the author of a children's book visits your school, what do you do? If you are a third grade student at St. Emily School (Mt. Prospect), you write your own story to read to her!

Author Elaine Harrison presented her newest book, "Imagine You Could," to all St. Emily students on March 15. Afterward, Harrison visited the third grade and was treated to their stories.

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Photo credit: Bonnie Eiffes, St. Emily School




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I love to visit St. Emily School in Mt. Prospect, Illinois. St. Emily is among the nation's top performing schools, as evidenced by their award from the U.S. Department of Education designating them as a Blue Ribbon School. This prestigious honor, which acknowledges outstanding achievements in education, is given to only a handful of schools throughout the country each year. In addition to their academic excellence, St. Emily is such a vibrant and welcoming place. This wonderful school is just teeming with community spirit and creativity!

This Spring I had the pleasure of spending the day with St. Emily students grades Pre-K through 8, as we flew into the pages of my book, Imagine You Could/Imaginate si Pudieras. It is always a delight to spend time with the "Eagles." No matter the age, these children are among the most enthusiastic and engaged learners I've met. This has everything to do with their exceptional principal, Mary Hemmelman, and her innovative and committed staff and faculty, including 3rd grade teacher Ms. Kim Marquardt, who inspired her class take on a writing challenge I sent to the school prior to my visit. Here are several of their compositions. Congratulations to Ms. Marquardt and her class of Great Imaginers!

Best wishes to all my friends at St. Emily School. May your summer be filled with good books, great imaginings and fantastic new adventures!




Delaney
Grade 3

"Have you ever heard the expression Man in the Moon? Great! Well, guess what? I know how he got up there! One day, I was just walking down the street. Then I saw a suspiciously dressed man. I decided to follow him. Guess where he went? Into a time machine! I got in right after he disappeared. When I got out I was on the moon! The man was gone! I searched the moon for him. Then I saw a bottomless crater! I found out that the man I saw went into the crater and his face was covering half of the moon. I went down in the crater and when I got inside, I saw a lab. The man had been the Man in the Moon the whole time! He helped me back home and said good bye. I was sad to see him go. Now I tell this story to everyone I meet. Most of them don't believe me, but I'm telling you, it's true!"

Elissa
Grade 3

"One day, a man got a rocket and went into space. He landed on the moon. When he did he took a drill, and made a big hole in its surface. The man was 6 feet tall, so the hole had to be bigger than him! When he was done drilling the hole, it was 8 feet tall! The man went down into the hole and stayed down there FOREVER! To this day, the man was never seen again."

Nathaniel
Grade 3

"We were soaring in space in our NASA spaceship. OH NO we got hit by a meteor. Our spaceship was traveling at 1,000 miles per hour and we crashed inside the moon. WOW! It looks so cool. Let’s explore the inside. We took photos of the inside of the moon and we put them on google, on the news, and even in newspapers."