Brenau Partners with Local School to Help Students Write, Illustrate Published Book

A second-grader at Fair Street International Academy declared Tuesday the “best day ever” after her classmates received the fruits of their labors: Lucile Shows Kindness: Tiger Tales from Fair Street Elementary, a book full of their own stories and illustrations.

The perfect-bound, hardcover publication was made possible through a partnership with Brenau University’s College of Education, according to Tommye Thomas, associate dean and professor of education at Brenau.

Ana Hortman, WC ’14, laughs with her students after they received their copies of during the presentation of “Lucile Shows Kindness.” (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

“We’ve been doing this for more than five years now,” Thomas said. “My students came to help with their stories, and you can see how much it means to them now to see the finished book.”

Thomas and her early childhood education student-teachers worked with Brenau alumna Ana Hortman, who graduated from the Women’s College in 2014 and is a second-grade teacher at Fair Street.

“I was in this program not too many years ago,” Hortman said. “I came here and helped as a student at Brenau with this project, so to have it now come to my classroom is really special.”

Thomas said the purpose of the project is to benefit both her and Hortman’s students. It gives the Brenau students additional experience in the classroom while helping students use the writing process for creative expression.

Lavender Qin, an early childhood education major from Wuhu, China, talks with Joan Diaz about his art which was chosen for the book cover. (AJ Reynolds/Brenau University)

Early childhood majors have worked with Hortman’s students through the spring semester to compile the 2017 edition of Tiger Tales, a collection of short stories and drawings featuring Brenau’s mascot Lucile.

The stories in this edition each centered on the theme of kindness and depicted Lucile doing charitable acts for her friends. In one student’s story, Lucile helps prevent bullying. In another, she helps rescue a lost kitten from a tree.

Lavender Qin, early childhood education major from Wuhu, China, and a member of a cohort of Chinese students from Brenau partner institution Anhui Normal University, said her literacy assessment class worked with the students particularly on developing their story lines.

“My favorite part was their stories,” she said. “The theme was the same – Lucile Shows Kindness – but they had such different actions and stories to show it.”