WESTMINSTER : Preschool Class Gets the Story

Wide-eyed preschoolers pointed and giggled as they listened to the adventures of Kyle the Kangaroo, Aaron the Ant and other fictional characters hatched from the minds of a junior high school English class.

Scattered around a classroom floor at McGarvin Intermediate School, each of the 19 students from Garden Grove Cooperative Preschool munched on rainbow-sprinkle doughnuts and sat with an eighth-grader who read different stories written especially for her or him.

The Tuesday morning story-telling hour, part of teacher Suzanne Russo’s class assignment to write and illustrate a children’s story, was an instant hit with students of both classes.

“It was kind of fun because I used to love children’s stories, and my mom used to read them to me,” said Andrea Nielson, 14, author of “The Adventures of Dolly the Daisy.”

“I knew I was going to do (a story about) a daisy because that’s all I can draw,” Nielson said. “I like doing children’s stories. It’s fun especially when you see a smile on her face.”

Karrie Layton, 14, who wrote “Kyle the Kangaroo Gets Lost,” agreed. Although it was a tough assignment, Layton said she would like to do it again and added that she may pursue a career in writing similar books as a result of the assignment. “I never really thought about it until now. Although I can’t draw, I can get someone else to do that.”

Layton’s 14-page book shows Kyle’s kangaroo mother searching throughout a house for him, under blankets and in closets. The book, with pages designed so that a child must lift a piece of cloth glued to the pictures or open construction paper doors to see if Kyle is hidden underneath, was a favorite among the preschoolers. At the end of the story, Kyle pokes his head out from his mother’s pouch, where he has been all along.

The story was written for Andrew Allan, 4, who said he liked his book and would ask his parents to read it to him.

Seated on the floor nearby with his own 4-year-old partner, eighth-grade author David Browne explained his story showing the dangerous journey of Walter the Worm. Pointing to crayon-colored drawings, he explained how Walter goes to a big city to the east “and almost gets stepped on. He meets some dangers. He didn’t like it in the city. . . . From now on Walter will only wiggle west.”

After finishing the story, Browne gave the book to Daniel Friend and said: “This will be yours. You can read it when you can read. You can read it all the time.”

Russo said she and her mother, Saundra Skinner, director of the preschool, created the writing project last year and decided to make it an annual project.

Russo said she was surprised at the quality of the books, many of which included colorful and intricate drawings. One student wrote a story in both English and Spanish to accommodate a child who speaks little English, Russo noted.

Jeff Hall, 14, wrote and illustrated a book called “Where Do Clothes Come From?” that depicted a cow manufacturing leather and a silkworm making silk. “Can you say silkworms, Oliver?” he asked 4-year-old Oliver Harris. Later, Oliver, who was shy at first, scurried about the room asking, “See my new book? See my new book?”

The preschoolers--with the help of their teacher--will write their own book about their experiences at the story-telling session and send it back to the English class next week, Russo said.