Members of the Bowen Island Junior Writer’s Club launched their debut anthology featuring Halloween inspired poems, short stories and illustrations, at the library last weekend.
The Club started as a fun way to get kids who are homeschooling more engaged with writing.
Elle Wild, author of Strange Things Done (published in 2016) describes the Club as a mini “Dead Poets Society.”
“We’ve had lessons where we’ve used games and flashcards to get the kids going with their stories,” she says. “But now they are just really into it and write all the time. They even get together on Friday nights and design book covers.”
In the lead-up to the creation of this anthology and with news that it would be available for check-out in the kids’ section, young author Sam Florin re-wrote his story entirely.
“It was too scary,” he says. “My new story is about a pumpkin in search of a body. It works out well, because the pumpkin meets a skeleton in need of a head.”
Max Wild says that in this anthology, he is simply an illustrator for the late Thomas Greystone.
“Currently, the cover is being redesigned, as the paint we had sprayed it with turned out to be a little… off-putting,” says Wild. “We plan to have the new cover on and re-release the book in time for the library’s re-opening in December.”
The Bowen Island Junior Writers are also hoping to expand their ranks.
“Right now, we really don’t have the space to house a larger group, but that is likely to change once the library expansion is complete.”
Be sure to check out Bones & Groans: Spooky Stories for Children by the Bowen Junior Writers Club, to be found on the shelves at the Bowen Island Library in December. Below is an excerpt:
Fright Night
On a Hallowe’en night
The sheep had a fright
Something was out in the night
Would it bite?
The sheep piled into a jeep
And then sat in a heap
There is not a peep
And they wonder . . .
“Where is Bo Peep?”
On a Hallowe’en night
A monster had a fright
There in the night
Something was not right
Ten sheep were piled in a heap
All of them were asleep
There was not a single peep
From all ten, crazy sheep
On a Hallowe’en night
A kid had a fright
He was dressed up as Frankenstein,
Trick -or-treating in the night
He spied on a jeep
Ten sheep piled in a heap
All ten asleep!
CRAZY SHEEP!
On a Hallowe’en night
A monster and ten sheep
Made friends in the night
A Hallowe’en dance,
Danced by. . .
“Sheep in a Heap”
- Hannah Florendo, the author of this poem, has written five books so far. Four of them she wrote when she was ten, the other one she wrote when she was eight. This is the first that has been published. She loves to read graphic novels, comic books and novels. She lives with her family and two dogs on Bowen Island, British Columbia, Canada.
