By Jeff Kenney Citizen editor
For the second year in a row, students in Raeanne Stevens’ fifth grade reading class have a chance to be published authors. And while their book may not appear on the shelves of any large chain bookstores anytime soon, it will be on hand in several local venues and will be a treasured keepsake for those featured in its pages, and their parents.
Stevens, a teacher at the Culver Elementary School, says the project started over a year ago when she received an advertisement in her mailbox for binding and publication of a book just for the cost of student and teacher purchases. Last year’s students were the first to have their own stories collected in the hardbound, full-color format, and Stevens says last year the book was illustrated by student drawings, with mixed results. So this year, photos were taken – mostly by Stevens, but also by some of the students – of various scenes in the area, and students chose a photo that intrigued them and were asked to construct a one-page, fictional story around the picture.

Stevens says that students voted for a spooky, mysterious theme for their book, inspired by the Chris Van Allsburg book the class had read, “The Mysteries of Harris Burdick.” After several changes in the title of their book, the class settled on “Mini Stories to Chill Your Bones,” though Stevens notes that not all of the stories are necessarily mystery of “spooky” in theme.
Abby Atkins’ story, “The Big Lip Bridge: the Story of Twins,” was centered around a photo that she took herself and involves a murder plot between one brother and another.
Abby Atkins’ story is of twin brothers — one decides he’s mad at the other brother and decides to kill him.  
Marshall Anderson’s “Ghosts of the B-ball Court” came about because he loves the sport and decided to incorporate it into his tale of a murdered player whose ghost appears to be haunting the local court, a fact discovered by two student friends.
“At the beginning, it was hard to come up with the story,” says Marshall. “I had to change a lot of it around. Some of it was out of order. My teacher told me to flip a couple of things to make more sense, and it came out perfect.”
Janele VanDeputte’s story features no ghosts, but there is a near-murder of sorts. “It’s about a family of deer and a newborn deer who gets curious and wanders off,” she says, of her story, “Animals in Danger.” “And hunters try to shoot her, but shoot her mom.”
Happily, the mother deer survives and the baby is cared for by other forest creatures. Once she saw the photo, Janele says the story “just came out,” though like Marshall, she had to work to make it fit in the allotted space.
Colin Deon’s story, “The Property,” involves supernatural goings-on at land discovered by two boys. Deon says he may want to write his own book someday.
The student authors gathered at the school’s media center for a March 5 release party at which the books, just arrived two days earlier and almost “hot off the presses,” were unveiled to both students and parents for the first time. Stevens notes that the project started last November, and students worked through January to complete the book before it was sent off, returned bound and ready to take home 10 days later.