October 10, 2008

Rising Young Authors

CUSD presents the best student writers of the year

Campbell Union School District presented a bevy of talented students at their sixth annual award presentation of Rising Young Authors at Barnes and Noble Bookstore held on Oct. 1.

CUSD students [front row] Jasmyn Molaei, Victor Manrique, Madison Bankosh, Savannah Garcia, [back row] Carolyn Geyer, Karsten Kimbel, Brandon Schultz, Carlos Cardoso, Samantha Faul and Noa Tia shared their new works at the Rising Young Author’s event. Photos by Jeanne C. Carbone

“Our kids write about lots of things,” said Campbell Union School District [CUSD] Superintendent, Johanna VanderMolen, to the standing room only crowd. “We know very clearly that the more a child writes, the better they read, the more they read, the better they write, the more that we acknowledge how well they write, the more they want to write.”

Every year CUSD’s teachers collect their students’ work which is then displayed at the Campbell Library’s Spring Writing Fair where the top books are chosen to be published for the Rising Young Author event. The event is possible with the sponsorship of CUSD, Barnes and Noble Bookstore, edPal LLC, the Friends of the Campbell Public Library and the Assis-tance League [AL] of Los Gatos-Saratoga.

Not only are the third through seventh grade students published, they receive a gift certificate from AL, a certificate of recognition from Assemblymember Jim Beall, a commendation from Supervisor Ken Yeager, a CUSD certificate, and a journal from Barnes and Noble to continue their writing.

“I kind of liked writing before,” said Lynhaven School student Christina Nguyen who wrote “My Poetry Book.” “Now I really like it because I can write poems about my feelings.”

—Jeanne C. Carbone