Their ‘final’ is a beginning for young authors

On the shelf behind him, fellow published authors named Hemingway, Wilde, Carroll and Galdos looked out from the covers of their books as 15-year-old Dylan Garcia read Saturday afternoon from his latest work.

Holding the slick trade paperback at chest level before the microphone, peering down intently through wire-rimmed eyeglasses, he gave voice to his written words:

The building manager’s husband hoses down the area everyday -- leaving it wet. Most times, I would watch the ants drown and see their pathetic lives go down the drain. I have become immune to seeing other creatures suffering and dying. Sometimes, I think I was born without any feelings; I don’t care what happens to me or anyone else.

The passage was from Dylan’s three-page account of a routine visit to his grandmother’s, which was studded with novelistic detail, concise dialogue and not a little self-revelation.

Dylan and five other soon-to-be-sophomores at the Los Angeles Unified School District’s new Contreras Learning Complex gathered at the Libreria Martinez bookstore in Lynwood to read their contributions to an unusual new book, “Walking Through Walls.”

The pieces range from short poems to essays and narratives of several pages. They abound with references to skateboarding, video games, gang violence, child abuse, parental nagging, parental devotion and early teen lovesickness (lots of it).

Many are simple outpourings of affection. Many are detailed descriptions of everyday life. One is a girl’s tearful account of learning her boyfriend had been killed in a shooting. A compelling poem titled “5653,” by Thelma Maritza Chavez Roca, takes bulimia as its theme:

5 moments when there isn’t a clay finger down your throat. 6 pounds in your life when

you can’t feel a bag of food. 5 fingers down, to feel the acid. 3 minutes in life when you

wanted to change. You’re puking your life out. . . . Be the one I used to know. Be the one who wants to live. No time to feel the wrath. It’s time to stop, transient. . . . I am the only person you know, The wind in your ear. . . Conscience.

A year ago, on the students’ first day of high school, English teachers Laura Cometa and Christian Quintero informed them and 108 other freshmen at the Contreras campus’ Los Angeles School of Global Studies that they would not only read numerous books, but by the end of the school year, they would also write one -- an ambitious goal for the students, all of whom come from the school’s near-downtown neighborhood. For 80% of them, English is a second language.

In the long and arduous process of reading closely (they were required to make notes on every page of every book they read) and then of writing and rewriting and rewriting, the students discovered to their surprise that what was in them -- their private thoughts about personal experiences -- was worth putting out into the world. That it could take physical form. That it could pass into the hands and then the minds of others.

“They loved writing from the first day,” Cometa said. “They loved telling their stories. They wanted people to hear their stories. Reading was also a big focus. We told them you have to see how authors do it, so you can take strategies from them, see how they use dialogue, and so forth. More than half had never read a book before in their life.”

Each student was made to write five pieces and, to prepare for each, had to read at least one book they chose from a list their teachers prepared. The books ranged from entry-level fare, such as “The Giver,” to “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” “Watership Down” and former Vice President Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.”

Through Libreria Martinez and the nonprofit organization 826LA, students obtained personal copies of the books -- the beginnings of home libraries.

In addition, students reading the same titles were formed into literature circles to discuss what they were reading.

“We never gave them any answers or said, ‘This is the plot in your book, these are the symbols,’ ” Cometa said. “They had to figure everything out for themselves. We wanted to show them they could make their own knowledge. They become much more confident. They had a whole new vocabulary this year. They really became very good at literary analysis.”

826LA, which promotes literacy and writing, provided each student with a volunteer tutor. Many of the tutors were freelance writers and television and film writers.

“We saw when they first started correcting our papers that we made a lot of mistakes -- error, error, error,” said Dylan. “There was nothing there but red marks. It was like, ‘Where’s my story?’ Over time, though, we saw fewer and fewer red marks. And we got our story.”

Originally, teachers and students assumed their book would be a photocopied affair that would be passed out to students in the school.

“But when we hooked up with 826LA, they said, ‘Hey, if your students come up with a book, we’ll publish it for you,’ ” Cometa said.

So successful was the effort, that Cometa and Quintero plan to repeat it with this year’s freshman class, and with every freshman class thereafter.

“This year with the ninth-graders,” Cometa said, “the first book we’re going to give them is ‘Walking Through Walls.’ ”

“Walking Through Walls” is available for $15 at Libreria Martinez, 11221 Long Beach Blvd., Suite 20, Lynwood, (310) 637-9484; and through the website www.826la.org. Proceeds go the 826LA’s literacy projects.

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james.ricci@latimes.com