MORRISVILLE, N.C. — Students at a school in Morrisville not only love to read books, but also write, illustrate and market them for sale.
The school of mostly young Asian-American students are taught to pursue excellence in every school subject. They love to put their colorful creativity to work.
The students attend Champion Education, a learning academy in Morrisville. Inspired by arts teacher Jim Burris, the students have become published authors.
Burris is also a professional water colorist as well as an author and illustrator. He has faith in the imagination of children.
“It might sound a little unusual to have an 8 to 13 year old student write and illustrate and publish a book, but it can happen,” he said.
Burris guides the students through the process of writing a story with proper grammar, spelling, flow and closure.
“The hardest thing was probably coming up with the idea,” said Jeanette Qiu, author of “The Journey to Beetroots.” It’s a story about a bunny on an adventure.
All the young authors completed books are in published form and on sale on Amazon.
Qiu said, “It makes me like feel like good that other people are enjoying my work.”
Zoey Wu authored and illustrated “The Diary of Ember Flame; a Very Smart Cub.”
Wu said, “I never thought I would actually get one story published! When I found out that there was a class for writing and publishing, I thought that my dreams would finally come true.”
Claire Zhu’s story is entitled “The Crazy TV.”
Zhu said, “I always wanted to write books but nobody thought that I would really get published.
Zhu also thought of a moral to the story: It’s not too late to change yourself for the better.
Their teacher couldn’t be more proud.
Burris said, “I know every single one of their stories, every detail, every illustration. I’ve been through everything with them with this and I want to see them in 10 to 20 years to see what they are doing. It’s not just about the arts. It’s about their whole life!”
The students’ potential future reward is that the money they may earn from their published books goes toward their future college education.
