The return of Pinewood student publishing

Around five years ago, past Pinewood librarians Mrs. Holland and Mrs. Purcell created a program where students could publish their own pieces for the Pinewood library. These students wrote books, either fiction or nonfiction and had their books revised and edited. The final product was laminated, bar-coded, given a spine label and inputted into the library’s online catalog. The books were then ready to be checked out by their fellow students. 

When the current librarian, Jeanna Stapleton, found these previously published books she wanted to bring the program back. She used the previous student examples to spark motivation and the response from the students was overwhelmingly positive.

Their writing area ran out of room and overflowed into the Lego brick building area. “Students were creating books independently and with their peers. They were so excited to be working on these projects together.” 

Additionally, they brought this program full circle and looked up previously published students and sent their books to them in the middle school with a thank you note attached to each one. 

Since the resurgence of the program, Pinewood students have published 13 student books and have started to create their own book-writing club.

“Students are asking teachers to write during their free time and inside recess. They are checking out books their peers have written and are excited for them,” said Stapleton. “It is so exciting to see the joys of reading and writing reenter these students’ lives.”