By Dee Grenert Editor
CULVER — A new television game show asks contestants, “Are you smarter than a fifth grader?”
Given the literary prowess of a group of Culver Elementary School fifth graders, “Can you write as well as a fifth grader?” may be a more appropriate question in these parts.
Raeanne Stevens’ fifth grade reading class recently published a book — “ABC Goes Fantasy” — containing a different fantasy story for each letter of the alphabet. The class of 17 students held a book signing last Tuesday in the Culver Elementary School library to celebrate the accomplishment.
“We had to write our own story and draw our own picture,” student Paul Tulungen explained. “Then, we had to work with a partner. Everyone shows up twice in the book.”
“We had to make up the names and everything,” Hayes Barnes added. “The story had to be exactly one page.”
Stevens, who plans to make this an annual endeavor, got the book-publishing idea from a mailing offering classrooms the opportunity to publish a book for free.

The students themselves selected the genre.
“We talked about a couple of ideas,” Stevens noted. “We thought about an ABC book of Culver. They decided on the fantasy characters. They have wizards and mermaids, but others they made up.”
Make-believe creatures including Jumbalo, Kozzy-curls and Niggleshnaggers parade through the pages of this group effort.
In addition to stories about these products of the students’ vivid imaginations, marker-drawn pictures provide the reader with an even clearer idea as to the physical appearance of each character.
“Originally, they wrote two stories,” Stevens said. “They wrote a description of the character and then a story about the character. Some of them read their stories in front of the class and the class picked what story they liked better. It was a collaborative effort. It was a lot of work, but a good experience.”
Stevens said the entire process lasted approximately three months.
According to author P.J. Thompson, the time and effort definitely paid off.
“We got to have fun and write stories,” he said. “Overall, it was awesome.”