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Swimming with mermaids, reading novels in an underwater library and taking a heart pounding climb up a rollercoaster taller than the Sears Tower are not typical summertime activities for kids.
But, for a group of Wilmette children, these adventures are just a few of many they have dreamed up and put on paper at the Wilmette Public Library’s Literary Magazine summer program.
Throughout the summer, children ages 8-14, have been contributing to the Junior Literary Magazine (grades 2-4) and the Literary Magazine (grades 5-9) programs, which allow children to unleash their creativity through poems, stories and pictures. With the Literary Magazine in its seventh summer and the Junior Literary Magazine in its first, the program is offered for a six-week period. When the program comes to a close on July 30, the 25 participating children will receive a keepsake book filled with their work.
“I think it will be cool to see my stuff in a book," said Brigit Hirsch, 9, one of the aspiring writers. “I’m excited. I’ve done one long story, drew a picture, wrote a few poems and now I’m designing a cover for the cover contest. I just finished writing a poem about going back to school and getting new supplies.”
Hirsch, along with Inaara Tharwani, 9, said they have attended almost every weekly meeting of the Junior Literary Magazine this summer because they like creating stories and poems.
“You can do it for fun and make friends while learning about people and poetry,” Tharwani said. “When I come here, I can tell a story about anything and have it published.”
Youth services librarian Janet Piehl runs the Literary Magazine while librarian Lisa Chellman runs the Junior Literary Magazine. Piehl said children need to have an outlet to express their creativity and not have their work graded, like they would in school.
“They are able to think hard and draw inspiration from anything they want, it’s all about creative freedom,” Piehl said. “When they have time to work on their own stuff, they come up with some pretty creative thoughts.”
Chellman said the program is beneficial to the kids because it is a summer activity that is mentally stimulating in a different way than playing video games or watching television.
“Instead of consuming, they’re producing and putting forth their own creations into the world,” she said. “It offers a nice balance – they are making media instead of consuming it.”
Chellman said the literary meetings usually start off with a group exercise before the children scatter throughout the room to work individually.
“Having group activities helps get the creative juices flowing and they are able to inspire each other by sharing ideas, then they just go off and get lost in their own world,” Chellman said. “When they’re off on their own, all you hear is scribble, scribble, scribble.”
Taylor Pochetti, 8, has been busy working on a comic strip about a superhero and said he will be excited to see it in print.
“I like coming here, it’s a break from being outside or at camp, plus it’s pretty cool that you get the chance to publish stuff,” he said. “Pretty soon, we can show everyone what we’ve done.”
Piehl said at the end of the program the children can choose which pieces of their work they want published. Copies of the Literary Magazines will be available for the public to view in youth services as well as on the library’s Web site in August.
