LEWISTON, Maine — Students in Lewiston are well on their way to becoming published authors. The students in the Author Studies program at Farwell Elementary School have been working since the pandemic hit writing, editing, and adapting two novels.
"I learned that I could write a lot better than I thought," said Liam Martin, a 5th grader at Farwell Elementary.
Since 2015, author Gary Savage has been volunteering with the school as part of its Author Studies program. In previous years, Savage worked with students in creative writing, character and scene creation, and more, culminating in a field trip and school-wide assembly. In 2020 however, plans needed to change to keep the program alive amid the pandemic.
"I was worried that it would stop because of the pandemic," said Farwell 6th grader Jack Caron.
Instead of stopping the program altogether, librarian Kathy Martin led the charge to convert the program to Zoom and worked with Savage to create a new task for the students. Students worked throughout the year converting Savage's previous works to take place during the COVID-19 pandemic in Maine.
"We kept the theme of the book what it was, but we added the pandemic as a parallel theme," said Savage.
Savage says the novel, 'Fletcher McKenzie and the Passage to Whole,' is about a small boy from Maine, who experiences the adventure of a lifetime during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The students worked creating characters, writing pages, and transforming the entire novel. The students helped create a world so deep, it actually expanded to a sequel novel, 'Fletcher McKenzie and the Curse of Snow Falls.' That novel has also been completed and is ready for publishing.
The two books are both around 300 pages, and the students participating in the Author Studies program will receive credit as contributing authors alongside Savage.
"It's an amazing feeling that these kids get to be part of a book, you know. Their pictures are in the back. They get to tell everybody, hey, I helped a character or this plot of this storyline for the book," said Farwell Elementary Librarian Kathy Martin.
"It's really cool seeing all of our ideas," Farwell 6th grader Hailey Labreque. "Things that we normally don't write about in school because you have a specific thing you have to write about, you get to create something fully new."
Now the students are looking to have their books published. Savage has created a Kickstarter campaign, looking to raise $6500 to have the books printed through the publisher Book Baby.
Larry Stone, a New York Times best-selling publisher, who has worked with Savage on publishing previous works and helps advise the program believes it can happen too.
"The book is good itself, but the author studies program is fabulous because fosters creativity instead of conformity," said Stone.
Stone and Savage say this is a unique program that currently only exists in Lewiston at Farwell Elementary. Stone says however he and Savage hope to establish the program in more schools as well. Stone and Savage add they have been in contact with a school in Church Hill, Tennessee which is looking to launch the program.