A group of young students taking a writing class at Oak Prairie Junior High School in Homer Glen received a rather simple prompt to kickstart their creativity. They had to incorporate a willow tree.
Brainstorming, a group of five girls imagined the tree filled with stuffed animals, and a story emerged of a young girl, her sorrows, and her perseverance. A book was born.
The five writers self-published their book, “The Old Willow,” on Amazon. Now, their second book, “Jane’s Story” is in the editing process.
“We originally started off with this little girl attached to her stuffed animal and we pulled in the willow tree from the prompt,” said Lilly Barrett, a sixth grader when she wrote the book with her friends, who now is in seventh grade. “Her mother was sick and during the time, she walked away. Her mother passed away while she was gone, and she thought if she had been there and assisted her, she could have saved her.”
The book takes place in 1876 but after main character Elizabeth Anderson dies, she’s in limbo. Then she comes back and must choose between saving herself and her mom.
“We kind of just wrote chapter by chapter,” said Barrett, who lives in Homer Glen. “We would all call and come up with these ideas together and we wrote it on a Google doc, in school, during free writing and at home on FaceTime.”
In the process of creating their book, the group also created good friendships.
For Mia Wegworth of Lockport, who has always loved writing, the characters they created seemed almost like members of their group.
“I just felt really connected to the characters,” she said, especially the title character in the new book. “I like how witty she was, and how she could almost make it seem she was someone she wasn’t, but in a good way.”
The five also said they appreciated the support of their English Language Arts teacher, Carrie Blackburn.
“She was a great supporter of the book,” Wegworth said, noting they dedicated the book to her. “She was just that person whose opinion you could trust because you always knew it was going to be truthful when it came to writing.”
Sophia Carirel, of Lockport, it was one of her first experiences with writing.
“Sometimes it was challenging to think of ideas, but eventually we got it together and made something amazing,” said Carirel, whose favorite author is J.K. Rowling. “My favorite part was just trying something new.”
Faith Miller also never considered herself a writer prior to this project. But working together and “developing a story that was ours” changed that.
“It’s just a fun thing we like to do together,” Miller said. “You can go on the Google doc and see other people typing, so we’d call and say, ‘Hey, do you want to work on it together?’”
Annie Corrigan, of Homer Glen, said creating literature, rather than just reading it, was an eye opening experience.
“My favorite part about writing is just being able to connect with what I’m writing because reading other books, you can connect but not as much as when you’re writing yourself,” she said.
Corrigan said they enjoyed the experience so much and also talking about books that they started a book club. They meet during lunch in the library with Emily Wedewer, a school library media specialist who’s watched the girls’ progress with admiration.
“Witnessing the hard work, creativity, dedication to the writing process, and the seamless collaboration has been truly amazing,” Wedewer said.
Blackburn, their English teacher, said the assignment was to write whatever came to mind and what they felt from the prompt.
“They’re very sensitive,” said Blackburn. “They kind of pick up on things other girls wouldn’t necessarily pick up on.”
Blackburn said she was also impressed by how the girls worked together and learned to be open to each other’s ideas.
“I think they learned a lot about being leaders, and give and take,” said Blackburn, who has been doing the exercise with students for 25 years. “If you are going to collaborate it can’t just be your ideas.”
She was also struck by the tone of the book.
“Their story is pretty darn dark, I was like, ‘Holy cow,” she said. “I think they talk about dark stuff, too, though.
“I love them and they have a lot of thoughts and opinions, but they’re good ones.”
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
